Red blends big deal across great Northwest

Scatter Creek Winery 2014 Fire of the Knight Red Wine, Yakima Valley, $20

South Sound Wine Trail member Scatter Creek in the Olympia, Wash., suburb of Tenino produces a number of eclectic grape/nongrape blended wines, but winemaker Terril Keary creates this proprietary red with an equal split of Zinfandel and Syrah. It hints at sweet herbs, strawberry jam, raspberry and red pepper spice on the nose and delivers those on the palate, where there’s a good bite of tannin, a nibble of pink strawberry and friendly splash of Rainier cherry in the back. It earned a silver medal at the 2017 Capital Food and Wine Festival Wine Competition.

Rating: Excellent

Production: 162 cases

Alcohol: 13.8%

Winery website

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3 Comments

1. 

   Jeffrey Masnari

   June 12, 2017 at 9:02 am

   Burnt Bridge Cellars listed at 15.7% alcohol. You guys palate orientation is showing. Of course maybe there the only one listing actual alcohols. The overly jammy black fruit dominated wines do a disservice to the wines WA could create. This big sappy wines show little to no complexity beyond black fruit. At least step outside your comfort zone and include some wines made in a more elegant refined character. You can certainly qualify that they are a atypical style for most NW consumers might have experienced but at least we can expose people to stylistic differences and maybe change the many people I encounter who dismiss NW red wines because they are so rich and jammy.

   Reply
2. 

   Eric Degerman

   June 12, 2017 at 2:33 pm

   Greetings, Jeffrey.
   We evaluate every wine blind and enjoy a wide variety of them. In this case, the use of the word “hedonism” is a reference to the voluptuous alcohol of the Blend X. We don’t hide that. And yet, we found this wine balanced to our palates. It’s tasty juice.
   Others made by Burnt Bridge Cellars are presented in a similar style, and we’ve enjoyed those, too. True, they might not be as versatile of a food wine as others, but after all, wine is an alcoholic beverage. And we are not the only critics in the U.S. to enjoy a red wine offered in this style.
   As you pointed out, there are many styles of wine produced in the Pacific Northwest, and we enjoy sharing our reviews of those wines. Along the way, we publish the listed ABV for each one. As you note, I suspect some wineries are more honest about that stat than others.
   In closing, thank you for taking the time to leave a comment and for helping to champion Pacific Northwest wines.

   Reply
3. 

   Jeffrey Masnari

   June 23, 2017 at 11:32 am

   Eric I do appreciate you taking the time, as well, to reply. I will try to acquire the burnt bridge and make my own evaluation only because I am curious as to how you balance 15.7% alcohol. Acid additions must be required.
   thanks again.

   Reply