Tasting Room Tuesday – Olsen Estates 2007 Merlot – Yakima Valley

One of the great, and often distracting, things about being a wine lover in the middle of wine country are the tasting rooms that most wineries have open daily to the public.  I’ve joked about some of our favorite wineries cutting us off from the tasting room bar and complained about crowded tasting rooms during special weekend events, but make no mistake, tasting rooms are my friend.  In fact, I’ve knocked on so many doors asking about wine tasting possibilities, that some places have put up helpful signs telling me not to bother.

I missed the actual tasting rooms terribly this past winter when a majority in the Yakima Valley were closed.   I’ve been keeping my eyes peeled for the signs of life inside and now that the sandwich boards near the street are proclaiming “Open – Wine Tasting” I am comforted, even though sometimes several days, and maybe once or twice an entire week, will pass when I don’t enter a tasting room.   Sad, I know.

There are many tasting room styles, moods, and set-ups.  Rustic, palatial, sleek, dusty, plush, foo-foo, minimalist,…  The list of feng-shui could go on forever.  There are also good times and not-so-good times to visit a tasting room.  For us, that timing depends a lot on why we’re going there.  If it’s a party or if we want to talk to other trail hoppers, go on event weekend, or any weekend during summer in the Yak.  We’ve often times found ourselves seeing the same people at 2-3 stops in a day, and usually by the second time, we strike up a conversation and start chit-chatting about home towns, favorite wineries in the area, and favorites from the out-of-town visitor home areas.  We’ve gotten lots of tips for places in Hood River/Gorge, Walla Walla, Seattle area, etc… this way.

On the other hand, if you want to study the wines, go at your own pace, and often times get a glimpse of the inside workings of the wine business, avoid the weekends.  In the summer, when days are longer, many tasting rooms stay open until 6, and I occasionally take afternoons off simply due to Spring Fever if there are no crises happening at work.  Fridays are okay, but the tasting rooms are already into weekend happy hour.   Mondays are bad, because many rooms are closed as a matter of recovery and work is gearing up too.  Wednesday and Thursday aren’t bad, but for some odd reason I’ve decided Tuesday is the best day to visit a wine tasting room when careful contemplation is desired.

Tuesdays are very relaxed days in the tasting room itself, and usually there is only one person working there.  That person is often lonely because nobody visits tasting rooms at noon on Tuesday (except me).  This relaxed, lonely atmosphere means the staff person is glad to see you and they are anxious to tell you everything there is to know about the winery and wines.  Sometimes they haven’t practiced this spiel for a whole two days and it’s a little rusty.  The list of wines available is typically the same as any weekend, maybe a few less, but the chances of them being out of a particular sample are pretty slim; they’ve restocked the bar that day.  Many times they need to open a bottle, so you get to see how they decant (or not) and this tells the level of care the server has about the wines.  

And best of all, to me anyway, there is no rush, I can pick and chose what I want, go in the order I want without the server getting upside down, and I can study the wines.  Many times after a server sees I’m serious about tasting, and likely buying, they’ll expand the tasting list to include others, or they’ll stretch the 5 wines for X dollars policy, or provide repeat pours to resample if I want to go back to compare.  Yeah, Tuesdays are the best day to study wines in a tasting room.

Not long ago, I revisited the Olsen Estates tasting room in Prosser Vintner’s Village… on a Tuesday.  I’d been there a year or so ago on a rushed weekend, and frankly been turned off by the crowd.  This particular Tuesday I was the only one there, got to sample several wines I didn’t even know Olsen made, and met one of the owners who was passing through to pick up some samples.  He was on his way to Yakima to meet with a few restaurants to see about getting Olsen wines on their wine lists.  I suggested a few of our favorite eateries in town and asked where they were already listed.  Good info to know.  After carefully tasting through the line-up, I bought a mixed six-pack to get a 10 or 15% discount and came home with three wines. 

One of those was their 2007 Estates Merlot.  I’ve previously explained our former shyness towards Merlot, but this is another example of why that is a thing of the past.    I opened the first bottle earlier this week with dinner and didn’t tell Barb what it was.  The wine has a subtle berry nose with slight earthy notes, actually more what I’d expect from a Syrah.  The mid-palate is silk, medium body with bold cherry and raspberry flavors, followed by more silk.  The finish contains a minty crispness that is hard to explain but that I’ve learned is a signature of Washington Merlot.  It’s not a doublemint or toothpaste mint, but rather an earthy mint like you’ve just picked it from an herb garden, crushed the green leaves between your hands, and taken a good whiff.  I knew Barb was a fan because she was banging her empty glass on the table before I took a second sip and I had to rush to get my share of the bottle.  Only at the end did I tell Barb it was a Merlot.

Go buy a Washington Merlot next Tuesday at your nearest Washington Tasting Room.  Or if you’re out of state, find one on-line or at your local grocery or wine shop.  Unless you’re my mother-in-law, then grab the one you got from the FedEx guy today.  These actions will get you ready for the #WAMerlot twitter tasting event next Thursday.  This event was organized by Josh at Drinknectar.com and his site is the best way to learn how to sign up and participate.  I’m a twitter newb, so I’ll be tweeting in the background.

See you again for another Washington Merlot on Thursday.  After tasting room Tuesday.