Highway 14 2005 Red Wine

*Bottle #36: Highway 14 2005 Columbia Valley Red Wine

*Price: $15

*Running Tab: $462

Jim, Jack, Johnny and Jose - most alcoholics' favorite American (and Mexican) men.

Syrah, Counoise, Grenache and Mourvedre - this new wino's favorite French men. 

Background check:

1) Syrah: Sometimes floral, sometimes super juicy dark berries, sometimes chocolate and espresso and black pepper. Big, bold and beautiful and can't always make up its mind. 

2) Counoise (coon-wahz): Spicy, peppery and slightly abrasive in its acidity, the Rhone Valley rarely let's it out of it's borders. Kind of a back-up, yes-man for more audacious grapes (i.e. big bro Syrah).

3) Grenache: A late bloomer, spicy yet soft on the palate and most often used for blending.

4) Mourvedre (Moo-vahd/Moo-vey-druh): Tomayto, tomahto, very strict to its area, this grape often shows charactertistics of game, earth and red fruits. 

With 70% Syrah, 14% Counoise, 11% Grenache and 4% Mourvedre, the Highway 14 blend from the Northwest Vine Project represents its founding fathers well. I'm talking winemakers, not French guys. 

Carlton, Oregon's pride and joy of their non-Pinots (there aren't many that color outside of the lines) is Andrew Rich, who strategically joined up with Irish wine patriot David O'Reilly from Owen Roe wines to create the project. The two feature inexpensive wines for a quality that's mostly tagged with higher prices in their Columbia Valley based co-op. 

The 2005 Red Wine, including the grapes and their traits as listed, gives off bright cherries and other bright red fruits, cinnamon, blueberries and later eucalyptus (but that took great discussion to narrow that guy down). After about 30 minutes, I finally decided there was red bell pepper in there too - which also after much discussion, I realized that wasn't exactly a compliment (vegetal tones are not the greatest aroma for a Rhone style red blend) even though I didn't think it was bad.

A cinnamon flavor was the first thing to happen on the palate - I'm not sure if it was the seeming texture of the attack of the wine or if it was actually there or something I ate before... Bordering on sweet, the fruit was smooth, well-structured and medium-bodied, with tannins just tickling the tip of the tongue in the finish. 

If I didn't know better, I'd think this wine was flirting with me.

Flattery will get you everywhere. Rhone varieties seem to grow well in the state of Washington (where this "Oregon wine" got its grapes) and produce a bit more fruit to them than in their traditional origin. This I did like, for 15 bucks - how can you lose?

Score: 8.