OTB # 4 The Envelope Please – Fielding Hills 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon – Wahluke Slope

For today’s Off The Bus review I’m going to talk about a wine that is an anomaly for us in that we’ve never before visited the tasting room or sampled a line-up of Fielding Hills wine. I think this may be a first for us for buying wine in Washington other than restaurant purchases, therefore I can’t write much about any personal connection to the winery. Also, the winery itself is located pretty far afield from the WBC drive–by (in East Wenatchee) so it’s a bit of stretch to cover it here. But the estate vineyard, called Riverbend, is smack in the middle of the Wahluke Slope AVA; if you look at the Wahluke on the map, the shape of the Columbia River as it forms the western and southern boundaries explains the name of the vineyard.

I’ve written about Full Pull, Paul Gregutt, and the Wine Peeps before. These are three distinct unconnected groups/people and are folks who’ve been drinking wine, particularly wine from the Pac NW, for much longer than Barb and me. Paul G. is a professional wine critic whose palate preferences I’ve come to realize are pretty close to my own. So when Paul Z. at Full Pull advertised a “yet to be announced, but highest score ever for this producer by Paul G.” wine available at $38, I jumped on the offer. I asked for more, but that’s how I ended up with an allotment of two bottles of Fielding Hills 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon through Full Pull.

One of the things that gets debated and kicked about in wine commentary daily is the value of ratings and scores. In the U.S., most wineries enter contests and submit their wines for review. Either to local or regional contests or to the large “international” contests (The San Francisco Chronicle and Dallas Morning News sponsor some of the bigger ones). There are also four or five or six national publications that publish scores, typically on a 100 point system. These medals and scores get published, debated, analyzed, and displayed prominently in wine shops and on grocery store “shelf talkers”. They’re very important is lots of ways even though some (including myself) sometimes complain about their value or meaning.

The topic of reviewer qualifications and who has adequate credentials for giving scores or providing a rating is another whole can of worms. This is particularly true in the world of social media/internet blogging and with systems such as Cellar Tracker where anybody in the world can announce what they believe is a perfect one hundred point wine or a zero.

Some wineries have decided (publicly or privately) not to submit wines for review either to critics or to competitions. These are typically ones who either don’t need to because of prior reputation or they’ve taken a calculated gamble that they can market effectively without them. Risky business in today’s wine world, if you asked me.

In addition to the Pauls’ review and recommendations, just last week Kori at Wine Peeps published their review of Taste Washington, the biggest statewide event in Washington, and this wine was given their highest ranking of any wine not named Quilceda Creek. When discussing this wine with Barb, I asked if she’d rather have four pair of really great shoes or one pair for the same price. She hesitated, but a quick look at her closet, or the floor under the bed, or the end of our sofa, or any other surface in our house will belie her true answer. Nice Birks, sweetie!

And when I looked at the Fielding Hills web site I realized the 2009 year end rankings from Wine Enthusiast magazine (which Paul G. is a contributing editor to) had ranked this wine #39 of all wines released in 2009. In the Whole World. Paul’s review had given the wine a 95 score which after I thought about it, is a notch or two higher than anything else in our cellar (that I know of), regardless of price.

These things elevate expectations and made me nervous about even opening this wine. But open it we did. Again as a sacrifice to this OTB blog tour and to celebrate our wedding anniversary. (Which is actually today, not yesterday. At least I got the month right, hunh?)

We let this wine breath for a full hour, and then started sipping. The color of this wine is a solid 100% opacity dense, purple black. On the nose it is intense concentrated fruit, blackberry and currant, with some deep violet notes. The palate is smooth but not overpowering, flavors of cassis, black cherry, dark chocolate, and licorice. On the finish is a crisp acidity, surprising bright red fruit and black pepper combined with an intense tar and granite underneath. This wine has balance and depth from start to finish without being over the top. We paired this with BBQ baby back ribs and the spicy sauce brought out the spice in the wine, or visa versa. Very nice.

I haven’t the experience or desire to give this wine an actual score, I like leaving that to others, but rest assured when a Wahluke Slope Cabernet appears on a list rated this highly, or we come across any Fielding Hills wine, we’ll try to buy four bottles instead of one or two.

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OTB Fun Fact: East Wenatchee, along with Wenatchee and Leavenworth, are home to the Washington Special Olympics Winter Games each year. This fantastic event has over 1,500 athletes from all parts of Washington participate and was the highlight of mine and Barb’s last trip (prior to Easter) up and down the Columbia River riding in a bus. Those medals mean more than any awards at any wine competition. Ever.