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Bartholomew Graciano 2018 Review – A Surprising Washington Red

Out of all of the wineries near Tri-Cities, Washington, I visited during my trip to eastern Washington, none was more surprising than Bartholomew.

This unassuming winemaker is located in a small complex with several other wineries (not in the heart of the vineyards of Red Mountain AVA nearby), makes a large spread of wines well beyond the typical Bordeaux and Rhone styles you normally see in the state, are all rather delicious, and clock in at a respectable price point, too!

Naturally, during my visit I had to sample my way through every bottle that was available and enjoyed all of them.

One bottle I was not able to sample was the Graciano as they were running low on inventory. I went on faith that it would be just as good as the others I tried (also thanks to a recommendation from a friend, Valerie & Valise, who sampled the last of it before I arrived, too), and bought a bottle to take home.

It was simply delicious.

When we visited several Sonoma wineries on a California trip a few years ago, we made sure to stop at Iron Horse Vineyards to try their acclaimed sparkling wines. We fell in love with them and brought many bottles home with us to enjoy later on.

Most of those bottles did not last very long, but we held onto a few to give a few more years of age to for good measure. One such bottle was Iron Horse Brut LD 2010, and we decided to open it up in mid-2022 to celebrate our 10-year wedding anniversary.

It was better than we expected.

If you've ever looked at our wine map and thought our sampling of Australian wine was limited, well there is a reason for that- finding interesting Australian wine in the USA is, in our local stores at least, not so great.

But we still pursue these wines all the same, and every so often we find a gem that makes us really want to explore Australia more. Ashbrook Estate's Verdelho from the Margaret River was one such wine, and as soon as we finished this bottle we really wished we had another to open right away.

During my trip to eastern Washington for a conference, I was fortunate enough to sample many wineries near Tri-Cities, Washington. Naturally, as the conference was held in a wine region, many of the evening parties also included samples from various local producers as well.

As it turns out, I started to get a bit of a reputation as a wine lover during this (non-wine-related) conference and had several bottles gifted to me that ended up being leftovers from these various parties. Yes, with as much as the travel blogging community can consume, there were still bottles leftover from an event that got rained out, and Gordon Estate's Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve was one such bottle that fell into my hands purely from chance.

While I'm not terribly sold on Cabernet Sauvignon as a grape, I have to admit, this bottle was quite nice.

For as much as we study wine, every so often we have a bottle that surprises us.

Sometimes this is because what is in the glass is completely different from what we expected. Other times is because we simply picked the wrong bottle for our meal and really didn't know what we were getting ourselves into.

Le Fraghe Rondinella from Italy is one such bottle that hit all those marks. We opened it thinking we were having a somewhat intense Italian red and it turns out this one was characteristically more like a lighter rose.

Naturally, we were in for a surprise- one that was not necessarily what we wanted.

When we visited Mexico City, we knew we had to try Mexican wine. We had heard that wine production in Mexico was increasing in recent years, but living in the United States we found that wines from the south of the border are hard to come by (and by hard, we mean virtually impossible- we simply never see it locally).

We have to admit that when we went to a few wine bars in Mexico, we left somewhat disappointed. The high alcohol and lower acidity in the wines were, well, harsh (and was something we expected since Mexico is so hot). But we did not let that deter us and we found some high-end bottles with good reviews at a wine shop in the city and took a risk by buying them sight unseen to bring home.

Vinicola La Trinidad Afrodita was one such bottle, and the Chardonnay and Chenin Blanc blend was one of our favorites from Mexico to date.

During our travels in Portugal, we were fortunate enough to taste many high-end wines at wineries and via multi-course tasting experiences at restaurants like Belcanto, DOC, and The Yeatman.

One such wine we were able to try at these dinners was the Principal Grande Reserva 2011 which was one of the most memorable pours we had on the entire trip.

Naturally, when we went wine shopping on our last day at Garrafeira Nacional (perhaps the best wine store in Lisbon), we found a bottle of this one and had to buy it to bring home.

It did not last long in our cellar after that.

What we are about to say should have no ambiguity- if you are a Riesling lover you'll want to make your way to Hermann J Wiemer. This Finger Lakes winery is truly one of the best in the area, especially for this delicious white grape, and blows us away time and time again with every bottle that we open.

Naturally, we stop every time we are in the area, and our shopping haul from here is among our largest purchases every trip as well.

So when we opened the Hermann J Wiemer Magdalena Vineyard Riesling, we were excited to see what it was like after spending a bit of time in our cellar and it certainly did not disappoint.

When we visited Portugal in 2021, we naturally had to go tasting at the many Douro Valley wineries as well as the port houses of Vila Nova di Gaia just across the river from Porto.

One such port house we fell in love with was Kopke. Not only is this one said to be the oldest port house in the area (founded in 1638), but it is also one of the smallest, most popular, and ended up being home to one of our favorite tastings- a decades flight featuring Colheita ports from the 1960s to present spaced apart by roughly 10-year intervals.

This flight really helped us learn how flavors of tawny ports change in the barrel over time and also let us find our sweet spot of flavors we personally enjoy (generally 20 to 30 years old which works out well as prices generally spike from there).

Naturally, when we bought wine at Garrafiera Nacional in Lisbon before flying home, we had to stock up on many bottles of Kopke for our cellar. We originally wanted to pick up a bottle from our birth year (1986), but as this was not available we went one year prior and picked up a Kopke 1985 to bring home.

We opened it the following spring to celebrate our 36th birthdays because it seemed fitting to celebrate with a port that also spent 36 years in the barrel!

While studying for my WSET Diploma, I found myself enrolled in the fortified class (D5) and studying all things sherry, port, Madeira, and VDN to name a few.

Historically, I have to admit not being too fond of sherries as the traditionally lower acidity and unique flavors from maturation (in particular the biologically aged fino style) never quite matched up to my palate.

The sweet wines, however, are an exception that I am coming to appreciate.

These wines sweeten the traditionally dry sherries with grape must or Pedro Ximenez, and convert what normally is only alright styles of wine to me to something I quite enjoy.

Mil Pesetas Cream Sherry was one such wine as this had all the hallmarks of a traditional Oloroso- but sweet!

Bartholomew Graciano 2018 Review – A Surprising Washington Red

Iron Horse Brut LD 2010 Review – Delicious Aged Sparkling Wine

Ashbrook Estate Margaret River Verdelho 2018 Review

Gordon Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve 2018 Review

Le Fraghe Chelidon Rondinella 2018 Review – A Rose-Esque Wine

Vinicola La Trinidad Afrodita 2019 Review – Mexican Chardonnay

Colinas de Sao Lourenco Principal Grande Reserva 2011 Review

Hermann J Wiemer Magdalena 2018 Review – A High End Riesling

Kopke 1985 Colheita Review – A Lovely 36 Year Port

Pedro Rodriguez e Hijos Mil Pesetas Cream Sherry Review