The Westin Kierland Villas
is once again proud to present to you our quarterly Wine Newsletter. It is our hope that this publication finds
you in good spirits, happy, and healthy.
Your wine experience at your home away from home is important to us and
we are pleased that we can continue to provide insight following your departure. Sit back, relax, and enjoy our second quarter
installment, authored once again by our resident Wine Expert, Mr. Tony Miller.
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The two topics of
this newsletter are both popular Q&A subjects at our weekly Wine Tastings: rosé
wines and the wines from the Evergreen State, Washington. Our discussion
of rosé is quite timely seeing as summer is the perfect time to try a new rosé. One can't pick up a wine magazine or look at
a wine column anywhere in the United States, Australia, or Europe without
seeing numerous articles about the explosive sales growth and great quality
that rosé has achieved over the past few years. Advances in stainless
steel temperature-controlled fermentation and a better understanding of the
importance of picking grapes early, when grapes have a bit more natural acid,
have made modern rosé a joy to drink. Sales
statistics show that Americans are now catching up with the rest of the world
in appreciating this much-maligned wine.
Premium Washington
wines have also grown in popularity, especially with wine critics. Washington’s first wine grapes were planted
in the 1860’s and by the 1920’s 42 wineries had sprung up. Unfortunately the Eighteenth Amendment to the
United States Constitution, better known as Prohibition, hit Washington
wineries as severely as in California and it took until the 1960's for the wine
industry to regain its footing. The
immediate predecessors of today's Columbia Winery and Chateau Ste. Michelle
Winery began in the 60's on a very small scale.
From very humble beginnings, Ste. Michelle today dominates the
Washington wine scene, an industry worth nearly $5 billion to the state. But beyond the big players like Ste. Michelle
are smaller, more entrepreneurial winemakers that are making their presence
felt in Washington. Among those, perhaps even leading that movement, is Charles
Smith. And, typical of him, Mr. Smith’s
strong feelings about rosé tie our two newsletter articles together quite
nicely.
Rosé
The hottest wine
category in the U.S. market today is Dry Rosé.
Sales of rosé in the U.S. has increased by 26% in the past 12 months
while total U.S. wine sales increased by just 3%. More interestingly, sales of rosé
retailing for more than $20.00 increased by nearly 80%. Premium rosé is the
hot wine these days, with good reason.
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| Courtesy of www.winecurmudgeon.com |
Once Americans get
past the White Zinfandel-like pink color, a realization sets in that premium rosé
is a near-perfect food wine that offer surprising depth of flavor along with a bright,
crisp, clean taste. The wine pairs with
a wide variety of foods very well. The best rosé can be treated almost like a
good medium-body red when considering food pairings but, since it's lighter and
brighter than a typical red, it’s more versatile and in many instances far more
interesting. Perhaps (finally) the
stigma associated with being caught drinking "pink wine" has
disappeared. Famous Washington state wine legend Charles Smith, a man with a
reputation for making big reds,
perhaps said it best. Printed on each case of rosé made by Charles Smith is his
rosé motto: "Yes, you can drink rosé and still be a badass”. Well
said Mr. Smith, well said.
Rosé wines are not
new to the world's wine scene. Rosé was
not created by Sutter Home Winery in 1975 by "inventing" so-called
White Zinfandel. Rosé was not invented
in Portugal with Lancers or Mateus in the 1950's. Wine historians suggest that early wine
making techniques in Greece and Imperial Rome tended to produce rosé wines
instead of reds and that most wines we consider today to be a "red
wine" were actually rosé until the recent few hundred years. Emphasis in early winemaking was to achieve
fresh flavors. Heavily extracted,
heavier, dark-colored reds were considered inferior. Well into the late Middle Ages and beyond,
Bordeaux wines, called Claret in the important British wine market, were pale-colored. But tastes changed and red wines slowly
became red. However, in France's extreme southern Rhone Valley and in the
nearby Languedoc region, excellent and purposeful rosé wine with plenty of depth,
richness and minerality have been famous for centuries. This region gets plenty of warm Mediterranean
sun which allows red grapes to come to fill ripeness and phenolic maturity. Rosé from this region is justifiably
world-famous. A wine that demonstrates all the traits of excellent rosé and the
style that help lead to such an increase in rosé sales is the 2016 Campuget
1753 Rose.
The Chateau de
Campuget is a vineyard property dating back to 1640 near Nimes, France. It has been owned and operated by the Dalle
family since 1942. They make a variety
of value wines but it is their "1753" designated wine that has
created industry buzz as of late. Vines
were originally planted in this vineyard in 1753 and although none of the
original vines remain, this vineyard's history of premium grape cultivation
contributes excellent grapes to make a truly world-class rosé. In 2016 the rosé blend is 90% Syrah and 10% Vermentino,
a crisp white grape. Each grape was picked, crushed, and fermented
separately with minimum skin contact before settling and brief aging in
stainless steel. The final blend was
assembled and bottled with a Vinolok closure; a glass "cork". This newly released, beautiful rosé exhibits
classic French rosé aromas and flavors of strawberry, peach, cherry, raspberry,
rhubarb, and tangerines along with crisp acids, complex minerality and a
refreshingly bright finish. Pair it with
grilled shrimp, fried chicken, barbecue ribs, pizza, smoked salmon ,chicken
salad, crab cakes, lobster ravioli, steak tacos, ham, calamari ,pork
tenderloin, oysters, lemon chicken, sushi/sashimi, avocado salad, roasted
turkey or a fruit/cheese plate. To fully
appreciate it's bright fresh fruit flavors, drink it now and over the next 9-12
months. The 2016 vintage wines from this region are already considered
superior to the very good 2015 wines, and although the 2016 hasn't yet been
reviewed by any critics, the 2015 received 90 points from Robert Parker.
Expect this wine to earn high scores, but by the time the critics have weighed in,
the limited national supply of this wine will be gone. If you are interested in this wine, we are
currently selling it for $34.00 per bottle.
Charles Smith
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| Courtesy of www.austinchronicle.com |
Charles Smith is a
true phenomenon in the Washington wine industry. The immense popularity of his wines is
evidence of the enterprising spirit that makes Washington wines, when made by
aspiring and committed winemakers, special. Smith went from working in the Los Angeles
produce district as a teenager delivering oranges on the 2:00am-noon shift and
sleeping on the beach to working in restaurants to going to Denmark with a
Danish girlfriend and eventually working in Copenhagen bars just to have a job.
There he met many musicians which lead
to a nine year stint as a band manager with tours throughout Europe. He returned to the United States in 1999 to
open a wine store in metro-Seattle. It
is here he met winemakers who convinced him to make his own wine. He released his first wine, 330 cases, in
2001.
In 2006 he created
his Charles Smith brand and acclaim quickly followed, including 2008 Wine and
Spirits "Winery of the Year" and 2009 Food and Wine magazine
"Winemaker of the Year". The
list of personal accolades is endless and wine critics pretty much agree that
self-taught winemaker Charles Smith makes stupendous wines. Smith is
known for his big, rich reds that display structure and body but with
crowd-pleasing soft, supple tannins. He
and his wine group now make over 60 wines under various trade names even after
recently selling one of his value-priced product lines for $120 million. After that huge sale, he referred to his life
as a "dream come true”. As he said,
“I started out with a borrowed $5,000.00 and an Astro van. And someone writes you a check for an ungodly
amount of money. It's a dream come
true". With that "ungodly
amount of money”, he continues to look at new projects to find ways to
expand his creative wine reach. Just in
the past few years, he’s created several new brands, in addition to his Charles
Smith, Charles and Charles and K Vintners wines, including Sixto, Vino, Secco, Wines
of Substance, Casa Smith and B. Leighton.
B. Leighton is
Brennon Leighton, Director of Winemaking for all wines made under the Charles
Smith banner. The B. Leighton line began
in 2012 to showcase a few specific Yakima vineyards planted to Petite Verdot, Syrah,
Grenache, and Mourvedre. These wines
received immediate critical acclaim and among those highly touted wines was the
first release, from the 2013 vintage, of Gratitude.
The 2013 B. Leighton
Gratitude is a GSM. Made famous in
France's Rhone Valley and then in Australia, GSMs are Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvedre,
with either Grenache or Syrah being the majority grape. However, Gratitude is
unique: 70% Mourvedre, 25% Grenache, and 5% Syrah. This wine has much more structure and more
body than a typical GSM because Mourvedre, a very full-bodied black grape, is
70% of the blend. These three grapes were handpicked, sorted, crushed and
allowed a 25-day maceration. Each lot
was fermented separately before aging 21 months in French oak. Final blending was completed and bottling was
done unfined and unfiltered. This
jet-black soft, rich, full-bodied wine shows aromas and flavors of blackberry, black
plum, black currants, Kalamata olives, black cherries, dried strawberry, and
vanilla along with hints of violets, lavender, sage, and white pepper. It's soft, lush texture and long, layered
black-fruit finish pairs well with grilled steaks, lasagna, crown roast of
pork, bison burgers, Italian sausages, French onion soup, leg of lamb, grilled
sirloin with blue cheese butter, mushroom risotto, duck breast, prime ribs, roast
turkey, short ribs, dark chocolate or a hearty cheese plate. Drink it now and over the next 2-4 years. (Parker 93 points) (Wine Spectator 92 points)
We are selling this wine for $44.00 per bottle.
Thank you all for
your continual interest in the wine program at The Westin Kierland Villas. Enjoy your summer and a glass of rosé!
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If you desire any further information or would like to purchase the wine, please contact The Westin Kierland Villas Food, Beverage, and FUN Manager John Voita directly at john.voita@westin.com. Please note that deliveries are not available to all areas.
Wine Event Information
It is always a pleasure hosting the wine events for you.
Please be sure to register prior to your arrival to ensure you are a part of
the experience. Thank you.
Tony Miller
Resident Wine Expert
The Westin Kierland
Villas
