One of the best discoveries for me last year was Three Angels, now named Angel Vine due to yet another wine industry trademark conflict. If I had a nickel for every one of these...
Three Angels is wine made in Carlton, OR, by Ed Fus, who's specifically in zinfandel and other varieties like primitivo. I tried a few from 2007 and loved the Avery Vineyard Zinfandel from the Columbia Valley. I'd never heard of the producer but loved the peppery, juicy Avery zin.
Then I had the pleasure of meeting Ed at last year's Portland Indie Wine Fest, where he was featured. This year, Ed provided a couple of samples of 2008s to try, and I'm happy to recommend both.
First, the 2008 Three Angels Primitivo Columbia Valley. This wine is large scaled but pure, only lightly oaked with a terrific aroma of ripe berries and fennel greens. It's a bit hot in the mouth but fresh and lively without any overripe flavors. Fans of bigger wines should like this. I enjoyed it but preferred...
The 2008 Three Angels Zinfandel Avery Vineyard Columbia Valley. This is in the low 14% alcohol range, downright subtle for most zin these days. This is just terrific zinfandel. Ripe but not overripe, slightly herbal and leafy but with plenty of juicy raspberry fruit, then a blast of white pepper that gave the wine another dimension. Maybe it reminds me of great old Amador zin, or something from Ravenswood in the old days. Really, it's excellent NW zinfandel and something I'd recommend any zin lover try to see what's possible up here.
4 comments:
You should definitely try the 2008 Les Collines from Walla Walla. The Avery was my favorite from 2007, but the Les Collines in 2008 has much less alcohol than the 2007 version, and I know that the 2008s saw less new oak, which really brings out the purity of the fruit.
That's good to know. Les Collines wasn't my favorite last year for those reasons. I'll seek it out...or if the distributor happens to be pouring samples somewhere....
Thanks for the post, Vincent. I do some work for Ed and wanted to let you know that he will be pouring at The Cellar Door, 921 Southwest 16th Avenue on Friday, April 23 from 3:30 to close.
Thanks for posting that. I hope I can make it, but everyone else seeing this definitely ought to check it out.
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