Guardian Newsprint Cabernet Ste Michelle Rose

Chateau Ste Michelle Rose' and Guardian Cellars 'Newsprint' Cabernet Sauvignon Red Mountain

We joined Ryan and Michelle and the kids for a cookout by the pool as we watched Reid and Marleigh swim. Ryan served this Guardian Cellars 'Newsprint' Cabernet with grilled burgers, sausages and hot dogs. I brought the remains of a Chateau St Michelle Rose'.

Chateau Ste. Michelle Columbia Valley Rosé 2018

We visited Chateau Ste Michelle during our Woodinville Wine Tour and Seattle Culinary and Washington Wine Tour last fall.

The fruits for this label are sourced from the Columbia Valley whose vineyards lie in the rain shadow of the Cascade Mountains and receive just 6-8 inches of rainfall annually, ideal for growing wine grapes. The northerly latitude gives the Washington State Columbia Valley nearly two more hours of sunlight daily during the peak-growing season than California, increasing the region’s ability to ripen fruit.

Salmon colored, light medium bodied, dry simple, elegant easy drinking rosé soft flavorful with subtle aromas of watermelon, raspberry and strawberry with citrus zest and hints of melon with a long crisp finish.

RM 88 points. 

This is a blend of 72% Syrah and 28% Merlot.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=3234852

https://www.ste-michelle.com/

We also visited Guardian Cellars' Woodinville tasting room together during our Seattle Culinary and Washington Wine Tour and our Woodinville Wine Experience last fall.

Guardian was founded in 2004 by two Seattle-ites, Jerry Riener, a police officer, and Jennifer Sullivan, a journalist with KOMO News. The two met while Sullivan worked the crime beat for The Seattle Times and Riener was her “confidential source” inside the police department.

An organic chemist by training, Riener had interned at several Woodinville wineries such as Baer, Mark Ryan and Matthews Winery before launching his own label. Guardian Cellars focuses primarily on on Bordeaux-style blends, but they also produce a line called 'Newsprint' that is comprised of single varietal offerings.

Guardian Cellars 'Newsprint' Cabernet Sauvignon Red Mountain 2016

We tasted and Ryan acquired this 2015 Newsprint Cabernet Sauvignon during our visit. It is 100% Cabernet sourced from the Quintessence Vineyard on Red Mountain. Located next to Col Solare and Ambassador Vineyard, Quintessence is the fruit source for many highly acclaimed wines from producers like Lauren Ashton, Duckhorn’s Canvasback, Lachini, Fidelitas, Mark Ryan and DeLille. The vineyard is managed by Marshall Edwards who also manages Obelisco Vineyard on Red Mountain.

This was another as yet undiscovered producer that was suggested as a worthwhile stop in the area. While perhaps not at the level of the premium Long Shadows selections, or the Fidelitas or Mark Ryan premium labels, Guardium produces some very respectable quality wines that represent high QPR - Quality Price Ratio selections. 

Today, Jerry, protege Joel, and the Guardian team produce 16 different wines under the Guardian label and this second label, Newsprint. Last year's production exceeded 10,000 cases. 


WINEMAKER'S NOTES: "Read all about it! This 100% Red Mountain Cabernet packs a whole lot of deliciousness in one heck of an affordable bottle. This wine features ripe fruit with hints of vanilla and wood smoke on the nose. The palate is super juicy, full of ripe dark berry, black cherry and plum jam flavors; these delicious fruits are complemented by a sprinkling of tannins aimed to give great structure to this wine."

This was dark inky blackish garnet colored, medium full bodied, dark black and blue fruits with notes of licorice and hints of creosote turning to abundant tannin on the finish. 

RM 88 points. 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=2607686

https://www.guardiancellars.com/ 

@GuardianCellars

Seattle Wine and Dine - Washington State Wines Tasting in Woodinville

Seattle Wine and Dine - Washington State Wines Tasting in Woodinville

We traveled to Seattle for a multipurpose trip including exploring the Seattle Culinary scene and to visit the Washington wine (tasting) area of Woodinville. We had several superb dinners and then ventured to the wine country where we targeted a select group of producers that we know to produce or that were recommended to us for their premium high quality labels. All in all it was a spectacular trip having several outstanding culinary dinners including extraordinary wine and food pairings. 

Washington State wines are coming of their own achieving new heights in quality and recognition. The number of  Washington wineries has increased 400% in the last decade and has grown proportionally as a tourism industry. It is the nation's second largest wine producer. Interestingly, the area is geographically located on approximately the same latitude (46ºN) as some of the great French wine regions of Bordeaux and Burgundy. Washington State wine growing areas are now officially recognized in 14 federally recognized American Viticultural Areas (AVAs), also commonly known as appellations.  The vineyards producing wine grapes in the fourteen different appellations lie in the Columbia Valley river basin that cuts through the center of the state from North to South and then turns west separating Oregon from Washington as it heads to the Pacific.

American Viticultural Areas, or AVAs, are geographical wine grape growing regions in the United States. Their boundaries are defined by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) and established at the request of wineries or other petitioners. Washington State currently has 14 AVAs.

Since the vineyards and their producer wineries are several hours from any population centers, producers have created a wine tasting mecca in the Seattle outer suburb of Woodinville, north and east of the city. Several dozen producers have tasting rooms in freestanding venues and in several commercial centers that in any other locale across the country could be mistaken for neighborhood strip malls or regional outlet malls.

According to the Willows Lodge website, where they promote their wine tasting and tour weekend packages, there are 115 wineries or tasting rooms representing every Washington State appellation in the Woodinville Wine Country. 


Wineries visited and wines tasted:

Den Hoed Andreas Walula Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon
Fidelitas Winery

Guardian Winery

Long Shadows Wine Cellars

Mark Ryan Winery, Tasting Room, Woodinville

Chateau St Michelle, Woodinville

Fine dining restaurants where we dined during the trip:

Canlis Restaurant, Seattle

Barking Frog Restaurant at the Willows Lodge in Woodinville

RN74 Restaurant in Seattle

 

Guardian Cellars Tasting Visit Woodinville

Guardian Cellars Tasting Visit Woodinville 

Another stop in our Woodinville wine tasting tour as part of our Seattle Culinary and Washington Wine Tour was a visit to Guardian Cellars. This was another as yet undiscovered producer that was suggested as a worthwhile stop in the area. While perhaps not at the level of the premium Long Shadows selections, or the Fidelitas or Mark Ryan premium labels, Guardium produces some very respectable quality wines that represent high QPR - Quality Price Ratio selections. 

Unlike many of the Woodinville winery tasting rooms that are sited in strip malls or commercial centers resembling an outlet mall, Guardian is housed in their own freestanding building in a quaint yellow cottage/home with a wrap around porch, ideal for casual wine sipping.

The Guardian story is interesting and storybook. Founder Jerry Reiner was a Seattle law enforcement officer and amateur winemaker on the side. After graduating from Univerity of Washington with a degree in organic chemistry, and the police academy, he worked as a volunteer apprentice at Woodinville wineries - Mathews Cellars, Mark Ryan and Baer, assisting friends with harvest or in the tasting rooms. 

Jerry met Jennifer shortly after she started working as a reporter for the Seattle Times newspaper. After a courtship, Jerry the cop and Jennifer the reporter got married. Four years after Jerry's graduation, they started Guardian Cellars producing a Bordeaux-style blend, a Cabernet and a Syrah. Upon opening the Guardian Cellars tasting room in November 2007, all of their 350 cases were gone by the end of the day. When the 2005 vintage was released months later, their entire production was gone in just a few days.

Today, Jerry, protege Joel, and the Guardian team produce 16 different wines under the Guardian label and a second label, Newsprint. This year's production exceeded 10,000 cases. While he is still a cop, he continues to make wine as head winemaker. Like Jerry, Jennifer also still has her “day job" as a reporter for KOMO (ABC) TV. When not working, or tending to their two daughters, Josephine and Jillian, she works in winery promotions, and hospitality where she can often be found pouring wine in the tasting room on the weekends

Fruit for Guardian wines is sourced from leading vineyards in Central Washington Columbia Valley - from sandy soils of Conner Lee Vineyard, in the Columbia Valley; west to the petrified tree fossils lining the soil in StoneTree Vineyard, in the Wahluke Slope; and southeast to the loam soils of Red Mountain.

 As I have written in these pages pertaining to several of the Washington State, Woodinville producers, many of their wines are crafted from fruit sourced from major vineyards. The wines are distinguished by the handicraft of the winemakers in the making of and blending of the wines. A few have Estate vineyards while many source their grapes from the same vineyards year after year under long term contracts. 

The Conner Lee Vineyard is in the Columbia Valley AVA near Othello, Washingon, and dates back more than 35 years to the early 1980's, the early days of Washington wine grape production. Conner Lee is planted in in Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Chardonnay, Malbec, Merlot, Syrah and Viognier grape varietals. These grapes are used in the Guardian flagship Bordeaux blend label  'Gun Metal', since the very start of the winery.

The 250 acre StoneTree Vineyard in the Wahluke Slope AVA was planted in 2000. The name of the vineyard is derived from the petrified tree fossils found in the surrounding hills. The vineyard is located on a rolling sloping hillside northwest of Mattawa, Washington, surrounded on one side by the Columbia River and on the other by the Saddle Mountains. Guardian considers StoneTree as their 'go-to' vineyard as a primary source for their fruit.

The Klipsun Vineyard in the Red Mountain AVA lies on the southwest slope of Red Mountain, and is considered the source of some of Washington’s finest grapes. Klipsun was named one of the Top 25 Vineyards in the World by Wine & Spirits magazine, Klipsun primarily grows Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, and Nebbiolo. The 120-acre estate was founded in 1982 by Patricia and David Gelles and was acquired by the Terlato Wine Group of Chicago in early 2017.

The Obelisco Vineyard, planted in 2006 in the Red Mountain AVA, produces classic Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot for several of Washington's top premium producers. 

The Quintessence Vineyard, also in Red Mountain, while a newer vineyard, is also a well known source for several top producers and well known labels. Guardian works closely with the Quintessence vineyard team to grow the perfect grapes according to their plans and expectations. Guardian has a long term arrangement to source 22 acres of Cabernet, Merlot, Syrah, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot from blocks planted in 2011. These blocks are known for fruit-driven dusty-red tannin characteristic so common in the best Red Mountain fruit.

Guardian wines are labeled with whimsical names befitting the marriage of a policeman and a beat reporter, with a sense of humor, producing wines together, Confidential Informant, Chalk Line, Rookie and Alibi.

The wines we tasted:

• Angel Sauvignon Blanc 2017
• Newsprint Chardonnay 2016
• Chalk Line Washington State Red Wine 2016
• Gun Metal Washington State Red Wine 2016
• Alibi Red Mountain Red Wine 2016
• The Rookie Red Mountain Red Wine 2016 
• Confidential Source Columbia Valley Red 2016
• Newsprint Red Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon 2016
• Newsprint Columbia Valley Cabernet Franc 2016 

We tasted and acquired several of these wines to bring home and look forward to returning for more and will keep a keen eye out for these labels to appear here in the Midwest in distribution.

https://www.guardiancellars.com/