I’ve been watching T in the Park. Not because I actually enjoy music festivals, but because BBC Scotland, in it’s infinite wisdom, decided to delay showing Top Gear for an hour and a half to show the music festival, and it has occurred to me how hopeless a lot of today’s performers are at singing live. Either that, or their CDs are so massively tweaked that the voice playing from your ipod bears no resemblance to the one coming from the botoxed mouth of the singer.I won’t name names, but there is never the consistency that you get from older artists such as Mick Jagger or Paul McCartney. Even these old rockers can have an off day, but if you look some more modern artists they really can’t sing a song all the way through without going off key. Essentially, the packaging is always glossy and the reality is not.
I like the packaging on Snoqualmie’s wines from Washington state, and that immediately send up a flare. If you visit any supermarket and you will see pretty labels glaring at you, generally adorning a crappy wine, so the fact that I quite liked the labels on these Washington state bottles was not filling me with optimism. These wines have just become available in the UK through Stratford’s Wine Agencies, who have just taken on several producers from the Pacific north west, and I tried them at their recent Edinburgh portfolio tasting.
Ah, the Sauvignon Blanc 2006 this is bound to be crap thought I. I don’t like Californian Sauvignons as a rule, and while I expected Washington wine to be a bit less flabby but I wasn’t expecting much. I am so glad I was wrong.
It was clean, with nice gooseberry fruit on the nose and a pencil lead and asparagus palate. The alcohol was a little hot, but not unpleasantly so, and you got a long, clean finish with very good acidity. I liked this wine a lot. (8/10). A good start for Snoqualmie then.
The 2006 Chardonnay didn’t dissapoint either. Pineapple and pear drops on the nose with boiled pineapple sweets on the palate. A toasty spice, a little bit of cedar creaping through, and warm honey finishing it off. The alcohol was a bit more prominent than on the Sauvignon, but the fatter fuller flavours masked it well. A good clean finish too. 8/10.
Sadly the Naked Organic Chardonnay was corked so we moved onto the reds and, if I was to criticise at all, it would be with the 2006 Whistlestop Cabernet Merlot. It is a bit stinky, with soft, cheap cherry pie aromas that are initially appealing but put you off pretty quickly. The palate is dark, very liquoricey and a bundle of dark chocolate. It is very tight, dark and bitter. This needs serious time to sort itself out, but with most wines being drunk within a week of being purchased, this could be it’s biggest problem. I’d like to try this after a few more years aging as the finish is nicely balanced and very clean. 6.5/10.
Merlot isn’t my most favourite grape, but this one was impressive. Their 2006 Merlot had loads of soft, juicy fruit. Masses of cherry and a bit of watermelon on the nose. The palate is good, very balanced with lots of sour cherries and blackcurrants. There is a long, dry finish with more of the darkness I got from the Cabernet Merlot, but it is much much better integrated. This is a solid, nice wine at 7.5/10.
Finally a brilliant American Syrah. The 2006 Snoqualmie Syrah is very good. Simple as that. Nice spice, a lot of dark fruit – brambles, marionberries and a dusting of white pepper. It has more of these fruits on the palate, with a noticeable wood influence giving a bit of vanilla, but it works very well. The finish is great, if a little short, but I’ll forgive it that because it is so damn good. 8.5/10
What I haven’t mentioned is the price. Snoqualmie are all under ten pounds and probably under £9 if you hunt around. The ‘Naked’ Range – which I have yet to try – will be between nine and ten pounds and for those of you in America there is a reserve range too. The wines are made by Joy Andersen, one of Washington’s pioneer wine makers, and to produce wines of this quality for under ten pounds is a major achievement. This lady’s wines are the vinous equivalent of Mick Jagger. The packaging is all glossy and appealing, and the live performance is great too.
Unlike Britney Spears….
Snoqualmie Website
Stratford's Wine Agencies Website
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