12 Days of Wine – Day 3 – Valdemar Estates

December 15, 2019 Posted by Robin Renken Grapes and Varietal's, Syrah, Vineyard's and Winery's, Walla Walla, Washington State, Wine and Food Pairings No Comments

Valdemar…Go ahead, say it. Savor the word. It has an exotic feel doesn’t it. Well it should. As you drive up the the Estate it looks like exactly what it is, a modern Spanish winery. Only…you are in Walla Walla Washington. What’s the story?

Valdemar Estates Winery and Tasting Room in Walla Walla Washington

A Spanish Bodega takes root in the new world

Bodegas Valdemar is well known in the Rioja region of Spain, producing wines from Rioja Alta and Rioja Alavesa, primarily Tempranillo and Viura. Here they have ventured into Washington to explore the wines of place of this region.

Valdemar Estates in Washington’s Walla Walla AVA
Entrance to Valdemar Estates Winery and Tasting Room
Basket Press at Valdemar Estates
The Valdemar Estates Tasting Room

The winery is stunning in it’s modern architecture and the patio allows you to enjoy your wine while gazing out onto the Blue Mountains.

Component Trials

This is what they came here for. The Component Trials allow them to explore the regions, soils and particular vineyards here in Washington. The initial 2017 Component Trials focused on Syrah from Red Mountain (vineyard specific from Klipsun Vineyard and a blend of Klipsun and La Coye vineyards) and Walla Walla with a Blue Mountain Syrah.

Blue Mountain Vineyard

Located on the Tranche Estate in the foothills of the Blue Mountains, this vineyard’s location and elevation protect it from spring frost and winter freeze. Soils are well drained and deep. This is a cooler site and they see 14-16 inches of rain annually. Valdemar sourced the Syrah for their component trial from this vineyard. It’s seems appropriate as you can see these mountains from the tasting room.

2017 Component Trial Blue Mountain Syrah

The labels for the Component Trials are a geeky wine lover’s (like me) dream.

Valdemar Estates Component Trial 2017 Syrah Walla Walla Valley

And yes…this is another Syrah! I know…3 in a row. Here’s the cool thing, all 3 were from Washington, 3 different AVAs, all vineyard designates and 3 different vintages, 2013, 2015 and now 2017!

Tasting

This wine had more in the way of blue notes, visually, aromatically and on the palate than the other two syrahs. “Blue Mountain”, does that play into that? A little word association that might be suggestive to my palate.

Valdemar Estate 2017 Blue Mountain Syrah with notes of spice, fresh sage, crushed almonds, bramble fruit, blueberries, pepper and cocoa. — Valdemar 2017 Blue Mountain Syrah with notes of spice, fresh sage, crushed almonds, bramble fruit, blueberries, pepper and cocoa.

We laid out nutmeg, fresh sage, blackberries, raspberries, crushed almonds, dried blueberries and cocoa powder to see if we could find these in the wine. The components were all in there, but were very blended, not standing out on their own.

Sitting at 14.1% abv they made just 146 cases of this wine.

Pairing

Pairings again were bleu cheese, gouda and chili with bison as well as our wide array of other tasting components. I did find that this went very well with the raspberries. Something in those lighter berry notes brighten with the wine.