The best wine of the night was Lowden Hills Winery Cabernet Sauvignon 2003. It was one of five Washington wines we tasted during our first week of our Washington Wines and Wineries class, taught by Dieter Schafer at South Seattle Community College. The class was refreshingly funny and non-pretentious as we learned about the nine viticultural areas of Washington. We’ll review the class after we finish it, but so far so good! We tasted five wines, starting with a Madeline Angevine 2004 from Mount Baker Vineyards. This cool weather grape is well suited to the Puget Sound AVA and produces a fruity wine with a crisp taste. This particular bottling was sweet with a very light color and taste but a strong fruity aroma.  Ed really liked it, but to me  it tasted ‘cheap’. Like it would be a good wine to picnic with a sandwich but nothing that I would spend more than a few dollars on.

The second wine of the evening was Canoe Ridge Gewurztraminer 2006. Created from Snipes Vineyard Grapes grown in the huge Columbia Valley AVA, this wine had the characteristic nose of heady fruit aroma. Strong on melon and lychee, the sweetness of the aromas of this dry wine give it an impression of sweetness. Since it is actually a dry wine (less than 1% sugar), not a sweet wine, it had a very refreshing taste. It was a nice Gewurztraminer, but not as great as the Lake Chelan Gewurztraminer that we had last summer.

The third wine was Dungeness Red from Olympic Cellars Winery. This wine was made from Lemberger grapes from Champoux Vineyards in the Horse Hills AVA. A relatively unknown grape, probably due to its name sounding like a stinky cheese, Lemberger grapes make a ruby red wine with soft tannins. Since 1979, Olympic Cellars has been marketing their Lemberger wine as Dungeness Red to circumvent public resistance to grapes they neither understand nor can pronounce. This was a nice wine, that would make a great accompaniment to a pasta dinner with friends. It isn’t a special occasion wine, but something to round out a meal.

Washington has some really atrocious and some really nice Syrahs. Our fourth wine of the night, was a good one and the best Syrah that I have had for under $20. Terra Blanca Block 8 Syrah was the only redeeming feature of last year’s Bite of Seattle but it was pricey. This Syrah was half the price and still boasted a full mouth of smooth fruit flavor and was well balanced. The 2002 Terra Blanca Estate Syrah had a lovely long finish.

It was the Cabernet Sauvignon that won me over though. It was a deep, dark purple color with nice clarity. It had a delicious blackberry flavor up front, followed by complex tannins and concluded with a long and luxurious finish.  It was a wine to savor and enjoy. Too bad it was poured in the last 15 minutes of class. It was a wine that I would like to have lingered longer over.