Wine of the Week 12/29/20
Kiona Estate Red Mountain Lemburger 2017
Regularly $16.99/On Sale for $14.96!
Locals are more likely to know the grape as Blaufränkisch, although our friends at Ox-Eye Vineyards make one of Virginia’s friendliest reds with their Lemberger. Many wine professionals feel that Lemberger suffers by being a homonym for Limburger which, according to the cartoons of our youth, is the world’s most pungent cheese. It’s an unfortunate prejudice as, whatever you call the grape, it can make anything from the most quaffable light reds to extremely serious and age-worthy wines.
Walter Clore, known as the father of Washington State’s wine industry, was a big fan of Lemberger. In the 1940s, he planted some in search of a varietal that would work well in the Columbia Valley’s humid summers and cold winters. It thrived, and the first commercial planting was in 1976 on Red Mountain by John Williams of Kiona Vineyards & Winery. Kiona was the first winery to plant in what is now the revered Red Mountain AVA, and many of the best Washington wineries buy their fruit from Kiona vineyards, now in it’s third generation of family farming.
While Kiona has maintained its commitment to Lemberger, it has fallen out of fashion in the rest of the state, losing literal ground to Cabernet and Syrah. In the 90s, when fewer than 10,000 acres of grapes were planted state-wide, 250 of them were Lemberger. Today, there are fewer than 50 acres of Lemberger in a state that now has 55,000 acres under vine. Most of the 50 are Kiona’s. The Red Mountain vineyards are warmer than most parts of Washington, and receive very little rain. These two factors, along with some very precise irrigation, allow the winemakers to precisely control the struggle of the vines, and therefore the color and concentration. This wine has surprising velvety depth, and will surely take the edge off the cold nights we have yet fo fully face. We’ll be closed the first few days of January, so tuck a few bottles of this away this week to get you through the weekend!
Composition: 85% Lemberger, 5% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Carmenère, 5% Mourvèdre