Tasting 2005 Reserves

One of the many fun perks that comes with working at Pepper Bridge is all the great wine that we get to taste. We get to sample all of the fantastic wines that Jean-Francois makes, of course, but we do get the opportunity to taste wines from other producers and other regions too. The PB staff recently had a tasting of 2005 Reserves from various producers in the area. 2005 was such a great vintage for Walla Walla and Washington in general, lots of wineries decided to make special blends. Pepper Bridge produced a Reserve in 2005 as well, only the second time that Jean-Francois has made a Reserve. So we tasted the Pepper Bridge Reserve along side the Reserves from Abeja, Leonetti, Five Star Cellars, Canoe Ridge Vineyard, and Boudreaux Cellars. It was a very interesting comparison of wines that have alot in common while still being very different from each other. All of the wines are Cabernet Sauvignon based blends with Merlot, Malbec, Petite Verdot, and Cab Franc making appearances. The Abeja and Boudreaux being the monsters with 100% Cab. Pepper Bridge, Leonetti, and Five Star are 100% Walla Walla Valley fruit while Abeja and Canoe Ridge are 100% Columbia Valley, and Boudreaux is a mix of both. Of course I am not going to spill the beans on who was the big winner, that is a staff secret. I think that it is safe to say that our staff does have a bias for Walla Walla fruit, but that is probably due to our volume of consumption. I will say that all the wines were delicious even though most of them are built to age and are still very tight. It would be loads of fun to taste these wines again in 5 years and see what has happened. I will schedule it on our company calendar for April of 2014.