A Look Back and A Look Ahead for Doubleback & Bledsoe|McDaniels
The big news in Walla Walla this month was the purchase of the àMaurice estate vineyard and winery by Bledsoe Wine Estates, a partnership between retired NFL quarterback Drew Bledsoe, his wife Maura, and their Director of Winemaking Josh McDaniels. Apart from Doubleback, for whom McDaniels has been managing vineyard acquisition and overseeing winemaking since the 2014 vintage, the partners debuted Bledsoe|McDaniels in 2019. They released the first wine under that label – a 2018 Pinot Noir sourced from the Ridgecrest Vineyard – in 2020.
Bledsoe|McDaniels was conceived as a companion to Doubleback with a unique focus on Oregon Pinot Noir and Walla Walla Syrah. The two grapes, Bledsoe and McDaniels agree, have more in common than most people realize.
Living in Bend, Oregon, Bledsoe told me in a recent interview, he drinks a lot of Oregon Pinot Noir at home and had been thinking about doing a Pinot project for some time. As a varietal offering he believed it would marry nicely to a Syrah called Stolen Horse made as a wine club exclusive. "It was Greg Harrington (of Gramercy Cellars) who first planted the seed that if Syrah is picked earlier and done more restrained it actually has more subtlety and nuance, more in common with Pinot Noir" Bledsoe explains. "We didn't know anyone doing single vineyard Walla Walla Syrah and Willamette Valley Pinot Noir under the same label. Yet it makes sense because both varieties lend themselves to a pure expression of place. We love that.”
McDaniels concurs, citing his work with Chris Figgins on the Figgins Toil project, which also focused on Oregon Pinot Noir. I can see the relationship and it's a most interesting concept. But what I was most curious about was how making Pinot Noir might be complicated for a winemaker (Josh) mostly schooled in producing Cabernet and Bordeaux blends. How might those practices impact the production of the more delicate and flighty Pinot Noir wines?
Actually, McDaniels explains, the most important impacts work the other way. "I feel that I've learned more about making Cabernet from making Pinot Noir" he told me. "Pinot shows everything. You have to be very mindful. It translates into understanding tiny details of extraction. Pinot has made me a better Cabernet winemaker which I didn't anticipate."
As noted, McDaniels cut his winemaking teeth working for Gary and Chris Figgins at Leonetti Cellar and Figgins wineries, including tending their Mill Creek Upland vineyard properties. He sees the àMaurice purchase as the last missing piece in his quest to assemble a complete portfolio of estate-owned vineyards for Bledsoe, a portfolio that can express the full range and potential of the Walla Walla Valley AVA.
The McQueen vineyard McDaniels calls "the backbone" of Doubleback Cabernets, noting that its fruit is "very tannic and high acid. So a big part of it but not all of it." The Bob Healy vineyard in Sevein is a very warm site producing great red-fruited Cabernet. LeFore is in the Rocks District and along with McQueen is used for the reserve wines. The most recent addition was (until now) Flying B, adjacent to the winery and both the hottest site in the heat of the day and the coldest at night. "The Cab here in hot vintages is exceptional," says Josh, "but in cold years it is not. It's part of the puzzle in Walla Walla when you're trying to create great estate Cabernet year after year."
The newly-acquired àMaurice vineyard contains 12.5 acres planted primarily to Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Syrah. Ken Hart, who manages it and several other nearby sites including his own Kenny Hill vineyard believes there is "no better Merlot anywhere in the state. There’s an open piece there [previously reserved for a home site] we’ll plant to Cabernet and Merlot, along with replacing some Syrah with more Cab."
The expectation is that this will happen next spring, along with opening a Bledsoe|McDaniels tasting room on the site. Located off Mill Creek Road in the foothills of the Blue Mountains, this may be the most exciting sub-region in the valley, at least in terms of future development. Vineyards are mostly dry-farmed, the views are spectacular, and the nearby vineyards and tasting rooms (both existing and planned) include Walla Walla Vintners, Figgins, Leonetti Upland, Yellow Bird, Kenny Hill, Kendall-Jackson, Echolands, K Vintners and Abeja. Pretty good company.
Though McDaniels agrees that there are as many as a half dozen sub-AVAs that could ultimately be carved out of the Walla Walla Valley, based on real differences in soil, elevation and aspect, the only one approved so far is the Rocks District, and that is probably all that we will see in the near future. You go to the East Coast on a sales trip, he explains, and they don't even know where Walla Walla is!
"One of our biggest goals is to get people to come visit us here and see the wineries and vineyards and the town" he says. With wines this good, that shouldn't be a problem.
Here are notes on current releases. The best way to obtain these wines is to visit the website and sign up for the Allocation Waitlist.
Doubleback
These wines were obtained directly from the winery library and cellar and tasted over a period of three days.
Doubleback 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon
This was the first vintage under the direction of Josh McDaniels. It's in a glorious drinking window, just starting to cross over into secondary fruits, the fruit flavors trending more to pastry than fresh picked berries. A touch of pretty soft leather (not brett) is another good indicator of how these wines will develop. This is much more drinkable than the 2019s, though it has many years of development still ahead. If anything it improved on day two, with supple purple fruits, blueberries and cherries, that soft leather note and a finish that skims along the back of the palate with a generous tail.
xx cases; 14.4%; $xx (Walla Walla)
Doubleback 2019 Merlot
This is still young and tight but packed with flavor. After breathing for some hours it gains breadth showing a mix of red and blue fruits, berries and plums, with plenty of supporting acid. The aromas have a pleasing floral sweetness, and the fruit continues to broaden out across the palate with aggressive swirling. The finish brings in dusty highlights of chocolate shavings, clean earth, coffee grounds and barrel toast.
xx cases; 14.3%; $xx (Walla Walla)
Doubleback 2020 Merlot
This is 100% varietal, sourced from the McQueen, Figgins, LeFore and Flying B vineyards. It seduces from the first sniff, a lusciously scented mix of fruit and flower, sandalwood and cedar. Blackberries, black cherries, and a thread of cassis, cold coffee and licorice complete the sweep of flavors. There's a spine of iron running down the center of the palate, assuring further expansion and flavor development. This is a stellar example of how great Walla Walla Merlot can be.
453 cases; 14.3%; $xx (Walla Walla)
Doubleback 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon
This is a deep, dense wine showing lovely structure. The berry flavors are dark and concentrated, so tightly wound that they bring a touch of bitters to the palate. This wine opened up slightly on the second day, though it remains a wine of great potential more than a can't-keep-your-hands-off-it wine at the moment. Dense and concentrated black fruits, hard acids and compact seams of espresso, cacao, black licorice and a dash of ash fill out the finish. Drink 2025 to 2040.
3257 cases; 14.4%; $60 (Walla Walla)
https://doubleback.com/wines/cabernet-sauvignon
3257 cases; 14.4%; $60 (Walla Walla)
Doubleback 2019 Estate Reserve Red Wine
At first this is astringent and wrapped up tight, with lightly ashy tannins. It's roughly three quarters Cabernet Sauvignon along with one quarter Petit Verdot and a splash of Merlot. It's stylistically of a piece with the winery's 2019 Cabernet, though with more of a tannic understructure from the PV and shows a bit of grit to the finish. As it grudgingly opens you'll find cassis, espresso, cacao and dark, moist earth among the primary flavors. This is a wine to observe over the next decade or longer to see what emerges. For now, tuck it away.
507 cases; 14.7%; $xx (Walla Walla)
Bledsoe|McDaniels
Bledsoe|McDaniels 2019 Pinot Noir
This is a 50/50 blend sourced from the Ridgecrest and Larry Stone vineyards. On first impression it shows more of the Eola-Amity style of Pinot. It's got substantial acid, tart wild raspberry fruit and a steely, compact mouthfeel. Overall there is a solid structure with firm fruit and a kind of electric energy that promises good things to come. This might need a couple more years to unwrap fully, but drinks well already with ample aeration. By the third day it had blossomed into a more fruit-driven expression, Drink now through mid-2030s.
222 cases; 13.1%; $xx (Willamette Valley)
https://bledsoemcdaniels.com/wines/pinot-noir-2
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Following up
I've made it clear that I believe that assigning numerical ratings to entire vintages does more harm than good. Anyone who knows a bit about wine understands that whatever challenges a vintage may bring – freeze, frost, drought, heat, fire, smoke, disease, zombie attacks, plagues of locusts – whatever... someone makes good, even great wine. The almost universal dismissal of the 2020 vintage in the Willamette Valley due to issues of fire and smoke is a case in point. To begin, my extensive tastings of the white wines from that vintage are almost universally spectacular. It was a great year up until the smoke hit, and the white grapes were mostly picked before that.
So what about the Pinot Noir? No question that more than a few wineries just didn't make their 2020 Pinots. But some did, and those that did had good reasons to do so. I've already written about some of the successes and here are three more, just tasted, from Bryn Mawr, including this week's Wine of the Week.
Bryn Mawr 2020 Zenith Vineyard Pinot Noir
A few years ago I profiled five Willamette Valley vineyards that I felt were not only exceptional for their fruit but also for their contribution to so many different wineries. Zenith was one of the five, and the quality here, in an admittedly difficult vintage, confirms that they are as good as ever. This is firm, balanced and immediately appealing. The mix of raspberry, blueberry, marionberry and plum fruits is set against lightly citric acids and delicate hints of cut tobacco. The winery notes say "drink now" which is good enough, but no reason not to tuck a few bottles away and drink over the rest of the decade.
100 cases; 13.5%; $50 (Eola-Amity Hills)
Bryn Mawr 2020 Fender's Rest Vineyard Pinot Noir
This is a new vineyard for me, and the first time it's been a vineyard select for the winery. It's dark and lush with vibrant blackberry and boysenberry fruit. Winemaker Rachel Rose teases the more elegant aspects out around the potent core of fruit and acid and tannins. The barrel aging (25% new) adds a lovely toasty note resonating across the finish. Drink the now and over the next five years.
100 cases; 13.7%; $50 (Van Duzer Corridor)
Bryn Mawr 2020 Estate Pinot Noir
Using select estate grapes, this aromatic wine is downright sexy. Its spicy pie cherry fruit has a good kick of acid behind it. In its style and substance, it's a complete wine that puts the lie to the generic dismissal (by leading publications that should know better) of the 2020 vintage across the entire Willamette Valley. Yes there was significant smoke in some places, but not everywhere. More than a few excellent and ageworthy wines – this is one – were made.
300 cases; 13%; $50 (Eola-Amity Hills)
NB: The wines I recommend have been tasted over many hours and days in peer groups and are selected for excellence. I have chosen to eliminate numerical scores from this website. Only recommended wines are shown, no negative reviews. My notes are posted immediately with links to the winery website, so you may purchase them directly from the producer before they are sold out. I take no commission, accept no advertising, and charge no fees for wines reviewed.
Coming next week: A close look at Oregon's least-appreciated great white wines
Heads Up: Features coming later this fall include surveys of Syrah/GSM blends, Oregon Sauvignon Blancs and NW sparkling wines; a detailed look at the terroir-inflected wines from the McMinnville AVA; and more stories and wine notes from the Walla Walla Valley. Please send current and upcoming releases for these features as soon as possible; however there is no final deadline as I can and do post regular updates to past features. All new releases from Pacific Northwest wineries are welcome and will be tasted. Only recommended wines will be posted on this website.
Please contact me at paulgwine@me.com with your feedback and suggestions for future posts. Thank you for your support! – Paul Gregutt
