A new winery is playing their version of “Name That Tune” … except, the game is called “Name That Winery”.
The Washington Wine Company is running a contest to name their new winery, which is scheduled to open in Woodinville Wine Village, Washington State, in 2008.
The contest runs from April 6–May 30. The winner of the contest will receive two cases of the winery-to-be-named-later’s best wine each year for a decade. The prize will also include an annual private wine tasting hosted by winemaker Jeff Schackman when the winners come in to pick up their yearly cases of wine.
Go to the Washington Wine Company website for details and to enter your suggestion for a winery name. Who knows, you may win two free cases of wine for the next ten years. Good luck!


Good news for Spanish-speaking wine connoisseurs in the New York City area — the International Wine Center (IWC) in New York City will be offering an Intermediate Certificate course “en Espanol”.
The latin-looking letters on the label may confuse you, or make you think this wine is Greek. But in fact it is a wine made by a Frenchman from grapes in an Italian vineyard owned by the American Jess Jackson. Got that ? OK, on to the wine …
I let this wine sit in the glass for more than an hour before tasting … the winemaster Pierre Seillan says to decant the Arcanum wines a good TWO hours before imbibing. Even after an hour, the aromas are still struggling to get out from under. And what appears from under the depths hints at excellence. I get whiffs of black fruits, complex earth and tar. From the nose, there seems to be a lot of layers here. On the palate, again the characteristics are subdued, but paying close attention reveals a remarkable complexity: ripe black raspberry, black currant, hints of anise and cassis, sweet earth and tobacco, black pepper, cardamom, and vanilla, all tightly wrapped by ripe tannins, mild acidity, and alcohol. The finish lingers for over a minute, and the tannins are still coating the tongue, with gentle fruit and spice in the background, a good three minutes later. This is subdued now, with a few years’ cellaring it should explode into a huge wine to contemplate with exquisite cheese or enjoy with a ribeye.
As with the other Arcanum wines, yes I did let this sit … and sit … and sit … I opened it and poured it and didn’t give it so much of a gander for an hour and a half and it still was showing very little on the nose, other than black pepper, maybe a hint of something meaty … or chocolatey … and a hint of black fruit. In the mouth it displays a little bit more than the nose, and actually gets more flavorful in the finsh.
Red Wine Review:
After pouring really inexpensive Languedoc from out of Larry’s Sommeliers Series glass and down the drain, the geek that Larry is once again brought up the unforgettable night he enjoyed a bottle of Chateau Ducru Beaucaillou St. Julien Bordeaux — after turning back a corked bottle of Chateau Margaux. He said it was the best thing that ever happened to him, because the Ducru was “mind blowing, almost life-changing”.
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