Waterbrook Winery 2014 Sauvignon Blanc, Columbia Valley, $12
Best Buy! John Freeman, only the second winemaker at Waterbrook in the Walla Walla Valley winery’s 30-year history, has grown his Sauvignon Blanc program by 25 percent in the past three years. And he hasn’t lost a step. Among the Yakima Valley sites that have produced a number of stellar Sauvignon Blancs recently is Brenton Roy’s Oasis Vineyard, and that joins fruit from Willard Farms for this clean and crisp drink. Asian pear, sweet herbs, fresh-cut celery, white pepper and lime peel aromas transition to flavors of Key Lime sherbet, lemongrass, more pear and spearmint. The residual sugar settled deliciously at 0.47%, making it ideal with suggested fare of crab cakes, sushi or pasta and spring vegetables.
Rating: Outstanding!
Production: 4,814 cases
Alcohol: 13.5%
Earlier this June Colleen and I did our second tour of some wineries out of Ashland. Wineries in the afternoon and plays at the Shakespeare Festival in the evening. Our last stop coming out of the Applegate Valley was Schultz Winery at your recommendation. It was a pleasant surprise. Greg was in the tasting room with the two dogs and his wife was out working in the vineyard. Colleen found her big buttery Chardonnay! They shipped a mixed case home,
(2 cases flew FREE on Alaska) plus 3 other cases by Fedx for the trip. Two weeks ago you did a Viognier review. You described theirs as “oaky and buttery” so we bought a case. Drank it tonight and it was as advertised! Thanks for the review.
By the way, congratulations on the journalism awards. I am glad that professional persons like yourselfs can be recognized without a printing press running behind them. Things are well at our house and we follow you every week and buy lots of your recommendations.
George and Colleen Hoyt