Alder Ridge

Vintage: 2005

Producer: Alder Ridge

Appellation: Horse Heaven Hills

Grape : Cabernet Sauvignon

On My Palate:

Dense, focused black fruit.

Rich, dark and brooding black fruit. Blackberry liquer. Cassis.

The oak is there, but well-integrated. It doesn’t overwhelm the fruit but does create a very full mouth feel.

Wide open and refreshing. Thirst-quenching on a dark desert night.

The Dregs:

Yes, I am partial to my home state, Washington; especially when a vinous taste of its terroir fights through the California wine jungle to my palate in North San Diego County.

This wine is fruit driven and built to smack lips now (case in point: Parker’s Wine Advocate rated it 91 points). But the eastern Washington desert keeps the fruit from over ripening (cool nights) and keeps the wine refreshing—a sip of the (irrigated) desert at evening. This is quite a feet for a built for modern markets new world Cab.

But don’t be mislead. At 1,400 acres, the “Alder Ridge Vineyard” is more of a grape metropolis than a single vineyard. But maybe this is for the best, as winemaker Rob Chowanietz points out in his marketing push on the Alder Ridge website: “One of the wonders of Alder Ridge is the diversity in elevation, soil depths, and exposure…. We end up with beautiful blending opportunities within our single estate vineyard.” This mantra is the backbone of Bordeaux. Blending allows the winemaker to hedge against vintage weather vagaries and allows for more varied varietal and vineyard expression—the music of the orchestra versus the lone flutist analogy.

Where:

In the back banquet kitchen, dodging banquet prep cooks. There is no tableside tasting per corporate policy.

Price: $40