The Evergreen State

​I have to issue this disclaimer:  I love Washington State wines.  Always have.  Yet it wasn’t really cemented in my besotted psyche until 2009, when I had the amazing opportunity to attend the Road Trip Washington Wine, an industry trip that takes wine buyers from around the country to get a firsthand look at the wine country of Washington State.  4 days of it, across the state, with up-close-and-personal meetings with the best winemakers and vineyard managers around the state, all orchestrated by the Washington Wine Commission.

One of the Washington wines that forever made an impression on me was the DeLille Cellars’ Grand Ciel Cabernet Sauvignon, a remarkable Cab that alongside Quilceda Creek, Leonetti, Bookwalter’s Chapter 3, Cote Bonneville’s Red Blend and Spring Valley Vineyard’s Kathryn Corkrum, just rocked my world.  It would be fitting that the guy who unofficially sealed the deal was Jay Soloff, one of DeLille Cellars’ founders, who upon my arrival at the Edgewater Hotel in Seattle, indoctrinated me into the Washington Wine World over Sunday brunch.

The trip was 7 years ago, but still fresh in my mind as I look for those wines and anything new from Washington State.  The variety of wines was mind-blowing then, and continues to impress me now.  But DeLille Cellars – man, my last trip out there, visiting their tasting room, it was just one extraordinary wine after another.  So lo and behold, after a year back in Ohio, the wines of DeLille have come back, though at present, all I can get the store is the DeLille Cellars D2 2013 – an amazing Merlot-driven blend with Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc, and the DeLille Cellars Chaleur Blanc 2014, arguably one of the best white wines out of Washington (heck, maybe even the whole West Coast), comprised of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon.

DeLille Cellars, the winery, is located in Woodinville, Washington, just north of Seattle.  Winemaker Chris Upchurch calls Washington a Grand Cru wine growing region created 10,000 years ago.  He utilizes some of the best vineyard sites in the state to create his wines from DeLille, as well as his sibling wines, Grand Ciel and Doyenne.
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We don’t see a lot of these wine, yet if there were any wines I will tell customers they shouldn’t miss out on, the wines of DeLille Cellars are on that short list.