theCompass mobile application is a winery, brewery, and distillery locator for North America.

For those of you who love lighter yet very flavorful red wine. Sangiovese, the backbone of food-friendly Chianti, makes up 85% of this wine. Sangio is the source of all the peppery spice and wonderful acidity. The faint hint of sugar is for all the wonderful women in the world. Cabernet Sauvignon (15%) supports this wine providing structure and ruby cherries for the lighter, spicier Sangio flavors. A magnificent pizza wine. A very good BBQ wine. And don't be afraid to drink this wine slightly chilled on a hot summer evening.

This wine is a fitting end to the remarkable 2003 vintage wines. The wine is 99% cabernet sauvignon from five remarkable Washington vineyards. Bacchus Vineyard Block 9 is part of the venerable Sagemoor Farm in the Columbia Valley. Old vines with deep flavors. Tended to perfection vine by vine by the vigilant Todd Cameron. Champoux Vinyard Block 2 in the Horse Heaven Hills is part of the old Mercer Ranch. Old vines managed to perfect balance by the legend, Paul Champoux. At the opposite eastern end of Horse Heaven Hills is the younger Wallula Vineyard managed by the Den Hoed brothers, Andy and Bill. Highly floral aromatics make these wines a standout for Chateau Ste. Michele, Leonetti, Abeja, Long Shadows and Boudreaux. Pepper Bridge Block 28 produces awesome fruit in the Walla Walla Valley. Managed by Tom and Tim Waliser, this vineyard is a big name for good reasons. Tom has an uncanny sixth sense for grape farming and how it relates to winemaking. The fifth vineyard contributing to our fab cab is Seven Hills Vineyard at the southern end of the Walla Walla Valley in Oregon. Chris Banek lives the day-to-day wine management with input from the owner winemakers. Our cab comes mostly from the Leonetti blocks so Chris Figgins always has his cunning eye on this fruit for us. Blending these various vineyards and sites within vineyards together into one 1500 gallon tank before bottling was one of the most exciting moments of my life so far. These wines were aged in French tight grain, Hungarian, Minnesota, Missouri and West Virginia oak for 22 months. The other 1% of the wine is comprised of merlot and syrah which were held over to add bouquet and spice for this bottling.

Barrel fermented through compete malolactic fermentation in French and Minnesota oak barrels. Stirred weekly with THE OAK DOWEL (With a moment of silent prayer for those who don't). Unfiltered, cold-stabilized, bottled in heavy Burgundian glass and finished with the highest quality Lafitte cork. The fruit is a 50/50 combination of the tropical-flavored Bishop's Vineyard (near the Columbia River east of Wenatchee and west of Quincy) and the nearby yet much higher Homestead Vineyard near Quincy. Homestead is the source of the dependably sustained acidity which gives this wine so much sex appeal with foodies. Both of the vineyards are managed by Terry Flanagan of Ryan Patrick Vineyards.

Having lost all of our usual Walla Walla Valley fruit in the 2004 freeze we were challenged to build a merlot which paralleled the 2003 wine. Fortunately two great vineyards stepped up for us. Bacchus, part of the venerable Sagemoor Farms and Desert Hills, the Den Hoed family farm on Snipes Road near Grandview provided us with beautiful merlot grapes. The Bacchus Vineyard Columbia valley fruit is deep, dark and classic. We have some of the best rows in Block 8. Todd Cameron and Kent Waliser, Boudreaux addicts, made sure we got the good stuff. The Desert Hills Block 52 (a good year) was planted in the Yakima Valley in 1987 on the very shallow soils over sandstone. Andy Den Hoed and Brett Calhoun produced fruit for us with bright elegant acidity, a perfect counter-balance for the deep ripeness of the Bacchus fruit. For fifteen months I topped these barrels with syrah just to add a faint hint of cinnamon-pepper to the recipe. The oak regime was fifty percent neutral French and Minnesota oaks.