Columbia Crest Winery: New Vintages of Old Favorites

Columbia Crest, located in Paterson, Washington, has been one of our favorite sources of value wines for many years. In 2011, Juan Munoz Oca took over as head winemaker from Ray Einberger. Einberger had been at the helm since 2002 when he took the reins from Doug Gore who had been the winemaker since Columbia Crest was founded in 1983. The Columbia Crest winemaking team has produced more 90+ scoring bottles of wine than any other winery in the world. For those of us who live in Washington State, it is nice to have such a consistent, affordable producer in our own backyard.

Recently, we had the opportunity to taste the current releases of two of the red blends in their extensive portfolio in a blind samples tasting, the 2009 Grand Estates Amitage and the 2010 H3 Les Chevaux. Both of these wines have been favorites of ours in the past and previous vintages have been featured in our A Wine for Tonight series. These new vintages are also very good and, once again, would be great choices to enjoy tonight or over the coming weekend.

The Amitage name is a combination of the prefix “ami” which means love and the word “heritage” which is a tribute to the artisan winemaking techniques used to produce Columbia Crest’s Grand Estates tier of wines. H3, an abbreviation for Horse Heaven Hills, is another tier in the Columbia Crest portfolio and showcases the region in which their winery is located. All of the fruit used to produce H3 wines comes from the Horse Heaven Hills AVA. The H3 red blend is called “Les Chevaux”, French for “the horses” and a reference to the wild horses that once roamed the region.

If you are ever in the Columbia Gorge or Horse Heaven Hills areas, I recommend taking a little side trip over to Paterson, Washington, to visit and tour Columbia Crest. And even if you aren’t able to visit, be sure to keep your eyes out for their wines. They consistently deliver serious bang for your buck.

2009 Columbia Crest Grand Estates Amitage Red Blend (Columbia Valley, Washington): 63% Merlot, 33% Syrah, and 4% Cabernet Franc. Deep, dark purplish red. Nice nose with cinnamon, blackberry, and black plum aromas and flavors. Medium to full-bodied with lively acidity, medium to high tannins, and a long finish.
Quality: 3.5 stars (out of 5)
QPR: 5 bangs for your buck (out of 5)
Where to buy: Received as sample, suggested retail $12; Available elsewhere, $8 to $13

2010 Columbia Crest H3 Les Chevaux Red Wine (Horse Heaven Hills, Washington): 80% Merlot, 13% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 7% Syrah. Deep red. Aromatic with red fruit and leather on both the nose and palate. Medium-bodied with lively acidity, medium tannins, and a medium to long, smooth finish.
Quality: 3.5 stars (out of 5)
QPR: 5 bangs for your buck (out of 5)
Where to buy: Received as sample, suggested retail $15; Available elsewhere, $10 to $21

Columbia Crest Winery: New Vintages of Old Favorites was originally posted on Wine Peeps. Wine Peeps - Your link to great QPR wines from Washington State and beyond.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WinePeeps/~3/-OC-xs9En2A/

Cuth Harrison Brian Hart Gene Hartley