Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
Vivid raspberry and sweet herbs evolve into earth tones, chalk dust and rose as the 2011 Red Wine Reserve comes to life in the glass. This child of a cool vintage is sleek and racy in style, with a balance of tart red plums and strawberries that echo throughout. It finishes with considerable length, yet light on its feet, with nuances of sour citrus and residual acidity that add a mouthwatering quality. It’s an incredibly gastronomic vintage, and it’s drinking beautifully. Chris Figgins explained "It was just so cold. We finished harvest in the beginning of November.
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Wine Spectator
Refined and elegant, showing juicy currant and blackberry fruit shaded with allspice, black pepper and bay leaf. Cabernet blend.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2011 Reserve is 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 21% Merlot, 7% Petit Verdot and 7% Cabernet Franc that spent 20 months in once-filled French oak barrels. Offering more black cherry, black currant, licorice, tobacco and spring flower-like qualities on the nose, this serious 2011 has fantastic mid-palate depth, integrated acidity and a medium to full-bodied, seamless and elegant personality that’s hard to resist. It too will drink beautifully through 2031.
While Chris’s 2011s are a fair step back from his smoking good 2010s, they nevertheless possess lively, fresh and elegant characters as well as solid richness. They’re certainly of high quality and worth checking out. His 2012s will be even better, and they have deeper, richer mid-palates and additional structure.
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
Responsible for some of Washington’s most highly acclaimed wines, the Walla Walla Valley has experienced a surge in popularity in recent years and is home to both historic wineries and younger, up-and-coming producers.
The Walla Walla Valley, a Native American name meaning “many waters,” is located in southeastern Washington; part of the appellation actually extends into Oregon. Soils here are well-drained, sandy loess over Missoula Flood deposits and fractured basalt.
It is a region perfectly suited to Rhône-inspired Syrahs, distinguished by savory notes of red berry, black olive, smoke and fresh earth. Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot create a range of styles from smooth and supple to robust and well-structured. White varieties are rare but some producers blend Sauvignon Blanc with Sémillon, resulting in a rich and round style, and plantings of Viognier, while minimal, are often quite successful.
Of note within Walla Walla, is one new and very peculiar appellation, called the Rocks District of Milton-Freewater. This is the only AVA in the U.S. whose boundaries are totally defined by the soil type. Soils here look a bit like those in the acclaimed Rhône region of Chateauneuf-du-Pape, but are large, ancient, basalt cobblestones. These stones work in the same way as they do in Chateauneuf, absorbing and then radiating the sun's heat up to enhance the ripening of grape clusters. The Rocks District is within the part of Walla Walla that spills over into Oregon and naturally excels in the production of Rhône varieties like Syrah, as well as the Bordeaux varieties.