Great Men Cast Long Shadows
By Jenise Stone

Or shall we say great winemakers, because that’s the principal behind Allen Shoup’s Long Shadows project, wherein after retiring from running one of Washington’s most profitable wineries he pursued a personal dream wherein a few of the planet’s most acclaimed winemakers would be invited to Washington to collaborate on making “the most luxurious wines ever crafted” from Washington grapes. 

He invited.  They came.  Cool.

Kind of the way a university is an amalgamation of colleges, each Long Shadows project is considered a winery, and the wineries operate under one new roof in the Columbia Valley appellation.  (You can get the whole story at http://www.longshadows.com.) The first releases were the 2003 vintage. Since, scores from all the usual suspects in wine criticism have been quite high, and Food & Wine Magazine crowned Long Shadows their “New Winery of the Year” about a month ago. 
 
Mike Peterson, owner and proprietor of Gateway Wines in Bellingham (on Railroad at Holly), thinks the Long Shadows project wines are destined to achieve that holy grailness that Leonetti and Quilceda Creek already have to wine collectors around the world and will gain in value. I agree, and have so far purchased every vintage of Sequel, Feather and Pirouette for my cellar, plus a few vintages of some of the others, all of which is less about some grand design than it is my screwy, disorganized, girly way of buying whatever I happen to trip over. There, I said it:  my cellar has no plan.

Though prices have yet to be mentioned, you now know enough to suspect they're not giving these wines away. Are they worth it? Well if, and that's a big IF, you're lucky enough to be able to afford the occasional $50 bottle, then yes. These are exceptional wines and, no lie, the wines most of these men make on their day jobs elsewhere sell for two to five times that, so their Long Shadows efforts are relative values. But what are the wines?

The only white in the line up thus far, Poet’s Leap is a riesling made by Armin Diel of Schlossgut Diel in Germany’s Nahe Valley.   Saggi is a cabernet/sangiovese blend in the Super Tuscan style made by Italy’s venerable Ambrogio and Giovanni Folonari. Pedestal is a majestic merlot vented by France’s (and the world’s, this boy gets around), Michel Rolland. Sequel is a syrah of incredible intensity and elegance made by John Duval whose sole job at former employer Penfolds was to make Australia’s most sought after wine, Grange.  

Chester Kidder, the only wine in the lineup I’ve not yet tripped over so I am sadly without adjectives, is a cabernet/syrah blend vinted by Allen Shoup himself with Giles Nicault. Pirouette is a delightfully complex Bordeaux style blend of cabernet/syrah/merlot/petit verdot collaboration between Napa pioneer Agustin Huneeus (Franciscan) and superstar wine consultant Philippe Melka (Quintessa, 100 Acre, and Vineyard 29, among others).  

And lastly, Feather is the 100% cabernet offspring of Napa cabernet icon, Randy Dunn  (Dunn Vineyards). Though Randy’s wines have a reputation for being tannic monsters, at least based on the ’04 I can attest that there’s a reason his Washington winery is called Feather and not Baseball Bat—the tannins are silky and this wine drinks beautifully young. 

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jenise Stone is a wine enthusiast and avid foodie who lives in Birch Bay, Washington. She can be reached by emailing jenise@tasteofwhatcom.com.

(10-13-2007)

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