Long Shadows Vintners
25-Jun-2006
The event that brought me to Vintage Lounge at Daniel’s Broiler was a wine tasting for Long Shadows wines. I was not familiar with this winery but the description of it sounded very intriguing, especially since Allen Shoup is the founder of the winery and the visionary behind it. Always a Washington wine advocate, he is considered by many to be the father of the Washington Wine Industry. Many of you may recognize his name since he was at the helm of Château Ste Michelle for many years and started their interesting partnerships with other winemakers.The two most notable resulted in Eroica, a German-style Riesling made in partnership with Dr.Ernst Loosen of Germany; and Col Solare a super Tuscan style wine made in partnership with Marchese Piero Antinori of Italy.
The name of the winery is a tribute to a select group of individuals, who shape the wine industry with their benchmark wines and wineries. All wines made by this winery will be partnerships with these great vintners, using their expertise, knowledge and vision but using Washington grapes.
At the tasting we had the opportunity to try the first six of the wines that have resulted from these partnerships – what an amazing powerhouse of a lineup! Most of these wines are celebrating their first release and are in very limited supply with 300 – 700 cases being produced of each. The exception was a Riesling which is in it’s 2nd year, I believe and had a production of 1200 cases.
The wines we tasted were:
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2004 Poet’s Leap Riesling – partner Armin Diel of Scholssgut Diel, Germany
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2002 Chester-Kidder Red Wine, a Bordeaux blend of primarily Merlot – partner Gilles Nicault, a French Winemaker who now resides in Washington
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2003 Pedestal Merlot – partner Michel Rolland of Pomerol, consultant to over 100 wineries
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2003 Pirouette, red blend of primarily Cabernet Sauvignon – partners Philippe Melka and Agustin Huneeus of Napa Valley
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2003 Feather Cabernet Sauvignon – partner Randy Dunn of California
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2003 Sequel Syrah – partner John Duval of Australia’s Penfold’s Grange
For more information on all of these wines, the associated winemakers and to sign up for their wine club, visit the Long Shadows website.
Culinary Fool 
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