Spring Valley Vineyards
On our recent trip to Walla Walla, Jan and I had the great pleasure of meeting co-winemaker Devin Derby and touring the Spring Valley Vineyards facility with him, barrel-tasting a number of truly outstanding wines.  We tried the two wines in this club from bottle, as well as the Nina Lee Syrah, of which there simply wasn´t enough for us to be able to purchase (although I did pick up a couple at retail for myself - they were THAT good).  The vineyard land has been owned by the same family for around a century (although the vines are a fairly recent planting), with all the wines made from estate fruit.  As you might imagine, family is important to these folks, and most of their wines are named after ancestors.  The 2002 Frederick, a Cabernet Sauvignon-based blend, is a beautiful, powerful wine that captures the essence of the vineyard beautifully in its dark, full-bodied fruit.  The wine could use several more years of bottle age, and I intend to drink my bottle by itself!  The 2002 Muleskinner Merlot is probably the best merlot I´ve had recently from this state.  It´s ready to drink, although it´ll certainly hold a few more years.