Scouting Chelan Luchadors

This past weekend Lake Chelan hosted their Winterfest Fire and Ice Festival.  Once again the festivities included the Wine Walk which featured more than 40 wines from wineries with connections to the Lake Chelan AVA.  Many of the wineries are located on the North and South shores of Lake Chelan.

This was my second year attending the event and just like last year there were some surprise wineries along with the familiar wineries.  In the spirit of the 80’s version of KISS, here is my list of Smashes, Thrashes and Hits. 

Smashes 

Wineries I have experienced in the past that really strutted their stuff.

The Blending Room

Angela, the wine maker, is also a past Rat City Roller Girl.  I've said it before and I will say it again.  The next best thing to Lucha Libre is Roller Derby!  You might call me on favoritism, but that is not the case. Angela is turning out some fabulous wines under three different labels: My Derby Wife, Fira' and Kamari.

My Derby Wife 2009 "Leeloo the 5th Element" Merlot

Dusty dark cherries with a sassy finish that features clove spices.  This bad girl may just knock you for a loop if she catches you off balance.

Kamari Black Label Reserve Red Wine

(Photo is the Kamari Cab Franc)

A blend of 37% Cabernet Franc, 31% Merlot, 26% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 6% Malbec. 

Aged for 22 months in American and French oak

Dark cherry, spices, cocoa and an espresso bean tinged tart finish. Big and bad, there is nothing subtle about this wine and it has nothing to hide coming at you front and center with bad intentions.

Nefarious Cellars

Located on the South side of Lake Chelan Nefarious is making some of the best wines in the Lake Chelan AVA.  Once again, they delivered the goods packed with power like a Hulk Hogan punch to the solar plexus...

2009 Defiance Syrah

Dark stone fruit with plenty of smokey pepper on the palate and finish.  

2009 Defiance Malbec

Dark plum sweet savory soy and a spicy pepper finish.  

Both of these wines feature grapes from Nefarious' estate vineyards.  These wines are sneaky good.  See the goblin in the photo?  Imagine what kind of havoc this little guy would like to unleash and you will begin to imagine the brilliant sneak attack these wines will perpetrate.

Hits

Surprise (new wineries) wineries that stood out from the crowd with stellar offerings.

Alta Cellars

This winery is actually located in Woodinville.  The name is taken from Alta Lake which is about 15 miles North of Lake Chelan.

2008 Cabernet Sauvignon

92% Cabernet Sauvignon and 4% Petit Verdot sourced from the Sagemoor Weinbau & Dionysus Vinyards and Meek Vineyard.

Dark and brooding with black cherry, Asian spices, pepper and a nice tart finish of cocoa and espresso bean.

2008 Escape Red Blend 

51% Cabernet Sauvignon,  43% Merlot and 6% Petit Verdot sourced from the Sagemoor Weinbau vinyard, Meek family vineyard, Seven Hills vineyard and Sagemoor Dionysus vineyard.                                     

Medium red fruit, black cherry, cocoa and light clove spices.  Sultry and enticing.

Atam Winery

2009 Barbera  

Dark black fruit heavy licorice eucalyptus on the nose.  Lighter on the palate with similar bold character and a nice spiced tart finish.  Big and bold yet light on its feet.  This luchador possesses the style and finesse needed to deliver some serious pain via the Superplex.

 

Thrashes

The Wine Walk is hosted in a number of retail locations in downtown Chelan.  My only complaint about the event was the unusual aromas in some of the host locations (especially the Ace Hardware).

Mellisoni was most affected by this.  I was really looking forward to trying their wine and the Ace Hardware aromas were too distracting to make a good judgement on their wines.  I will visit them on a future date.

All in all this is a great event that gives a good opportunity to sample the wines coming out of the Lake Chelan AVA.  The people are friendly and many of the wines are fabulous.  Keep your eyes open for these wineries.   Take advantage of other events where you can sample their wines or pick up a bottle if you can find them on your favorite wine shop's shelves.