Moo! Ved! Rah!

Trio Vintners is a partnership between three Walla Walla winemakers; Tim Boushey, Denise Slattery and Steve Michener.   Each member of the triad has a unique perspective, and so together they do a bang up job created amazing wines and sharing their love of wine & food.  They are part of the incubator wineries that have cropped up near the Walla Walla airport, where small wineries can foster entrepreneurship and help each other grow, using shared resources.  In this case, each of three incubator wineries can produce 1000 cases of wine collectively, and wade through the legalese that the Federal government has graciously given the wine busienss.

I first became aware of TRIO Vinteners through my friend and wine supplier Catie, of the Wild Walla Walla Wine Woman.  Through the magic of all things twitter, I then began a conversation with Denise Slattery, who, in my estimation is almost as irreverent, funny, and amazing as I am!  Ok well, I’m modest too.  As we got to talking, i mentioned that I really wanted to get to know more Washington, and specifically Walla Walla wines, before the WBC.  I turn around, there is a box of Trio’s current releases for me to examine.  thanks Denise!

Since Washington has some unique growing regions, trio has chosen to focus on these unique attributes.  The wines represented celebrate a special sense of place, and really focus on the local terroir.  In the case of the first wine i’m trying, the 2006 Yakima Valley Mouvedre.  The Yakima valley AVA was the first AVA established in Washington, and is now part of the much larger Columbia Valley AVA.  

This Mouvedre is a funny & charming wine, with black pepper, smoky meat, cedar, and blueberry flavors.  I also found a lot of s’more flavors, with some prune &b molasses thrown in for godo measure, followed by cardamon.  It was almost as if I was drinking a good cup of Chai with a s’more on the side.  This is not a bad thing in my estimation – and 4% of Syrah rounds out the masculine shoulders.

Since it’s  becoming more common to see a single varital Mouvedre on the market, it’s great to see this single vineyard example from Washington where the den Hood Vineyard sits at 1300 feet above  the Yakima Valley floor.  Here, the grapes ripe slowly, adn and were aged in Hungarian, American, and French Oak for 20 months before being released to the public.  The resulting wine is chewy, dense and powerful, and perfect for a big steak or BBQ.  the spicy finish on the wine makes it an interesting choice for almost anything, and I hop you’ll give it a shot!  At $26, it’s well worth it, and it just gets better on the 2nd day of being open.  Go BUY some and support your local winemaker.  With less than 150 cases made, this wine will not last long.

This Veddy (or maybe it’s Mourie?) was graciously provided by Denise Slattery at Trio, but you should get some of your own.  Because I’m not sharing!  please follow Denise and Trio Vitners on Twitter.  You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you certainly won’t be sorry!