In Washington, Opposite Approaches Produce Exquisite, Vintage Efforts

Emerging wine country regions need people like M. Taylor Moore and Gary Figgins, two opposite-minded people with the same goal: to make great wine.

Figgins is the man behind Leonetti Cellars, the winery with the Cabernet Sauvignons that easily compete with the best red wines made in the United States. Mike Moore experiments with every grape and wine type known to man (and a few unknown to anyone) under the banner of Blackwood Canyon Vintners.

The two properties, less than an hour’s drive apart in southeastern Washington, are a contrast not only in styles, but in physical appearance. Both, however, make great wines that indicate how superb Washington State’s wines can be.

Blackwood Canyon’s winery is a huge metal shed on Red Mountain, a remote region closer to Benton City than anything else with a name. The building houses barrels stacked on barrels, machinery and a tasting “room,” actually a table, next to the huge sliding door.

Getting there, one finds a dirt road midway between Prosser and Richland. Down the road, at a junction in the path, a sign notes that you are only 5,000 feet from Blackwood Canyon. Further along the dirt path a small, hand-made sign simply says, “A bit more.”

Several dogs greet you as you pull up to the winery. Before long Moore is likely to drive up on his John Deere. He is the dynamo behind Blackwood Canyon, an artist constantly trying to extract all the grape can yield. Some call the wines eccentric. But they are exciting and show Moore’s sense of commitment to the soil and to his intense methodology.

Leonetti Cellars is more traditional. The new, unfinished winery out behind Figgins’ home is European in design, reminiscent in one glance of something Tyrolean and then perhaps Italian. Inside the carefully constructed facility Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot of superb style is made.

The “tasting room” is a barrel sitting on end.

Figgins is proud of his wines, but a bit shy about his success. Still, every wine lover in Washington considers a collection a failure if it doesn’t have at least a few bottles of Leonetti Cellars Cabernets.

Neither Moore nor Figgins makes much wine, and what they do make is expensive. What they have accomplished is but a glimpse of what the region can produce, given a little time to do it.

“You oughta taste my vinegar and my Sherry,” says Moore, who has 50 acres planted and plans to increase that total slowly.

The wine style here is unique. Chardonnays are fermented in the barrel and then left there until spring to complete the second, malolactic fermentation. “The malolactic starts by itself, with the natural yeast,” he says. “You don’t notice the ‘ml’ that way, but it gives a nice complexing element in the wine.”

His 1987 Chardonnay ($20) is a huge, oak-laden wine that still has good fruit, and more dimension than most wine makers ever get. Moore credits the Chardonnay grapes growing on his Red Mountain ranch for the fruit; his technique gives the wine its texture.

His Cabernet Sauvignons are richly constructed, but with finesse in the aftertaste. “I want to make Cabernet along the lines of a third growth Bordeaux in style, so I pick from vineyards in the area that are lighter.”

One wine, however, a 1987 Cabernet, was a monster. “That’s from here--there’s no place that can do a Cab like Red Mountain,” Moore says. Because the wine needs loads of bottle age, it may be sold on a “futures” basis (buyers pay for the wine now and get it later). Only 600 cases were made, and price will be about $40 a bottle.

A stunning 1987 Merlot ($22) is nearly the equal of the 1987 Cab. It has a deep, intense fruit taste and a chocolate-rich finish.

One of Moore’s “statement” wines is a 1986 Late Harvest Riesling with the nickname Double Nickel because when Moore tested the fruit before it started fermenting, it had 55% sugar. The grapes for this wine were totally infected with the noble rot Botrytis Cinerea that creates the great Trockenbeerenauslese of Germany as well as Sauternes.

The wine is still fermenting, 3 1/2 years after the harvest, and only 80 cases were produced. Moore says it will sell for $100 per half-bottle.

A wine called Penultimate, a 1985 Gewurztraminer Ice Wine that froze on the vine, was harvested at 42% sugar. It was aged for three years in the barrel, and is amazingly rich and dense. It sells for $50 a bottle.

The bargain here is a 1987 Late Harvest Riesling with 9% sugar. It’s a stylish, beautifully made wine that sells for just $10 a bottle. “I made 2,000 cases of it,” he says, explaining the low price.

Figgins’ Cabernets are much more mainstream wines, and the best of them could compete for the best red wines made in the United States.

The star of Figgins’ show is the as-yet unreleased 1987 Reserve Cabernet from Seven Hills Vineyard in Oregon. It will sell for about $35 when released in two years. I rated it one of the best Cabernets I have ever tasted at this young stage. Only 240 cases were produced.

“About a third of the Walla Walla Valley is in Oregon, and the Seven Hills Vineyard has richer soils and the fruit seems to be abundant,” Figgins says.

Leonetti’s regular 1987 Cabernet, at $22, is a strikingly appealing wine with loads of black cherry and cassis in the aroma, accented by a hint of tarragon and cedar, and a huge, powerful fruit character in the mid-palate and finish.

A 1988 Merlot ($17) is likewise concentrated and made in the style of Pomerol, with loads of fruit and a cedar/spice aroma, a magnificent effort.

His method is to rely heavily on top-quality fruit, and leave the wine in barrel for years, developing maturity.

He buys about equal amounts of his fruit from Seven Hills, Red Mountain and Sagemoor, and a small percentage from Gordon Brothers and adds in some grapes from the single acre of Cabernet he grows in front of his winery.

Figgins makes only 2,500 cases of Cabernet and Merlot in an average year and demand is so strong locally that he could sell out without opening new markets. But he is selling a small amount in California at specialty shops.

Among the shops that carry Leonetti Cellars wines are Wine House in Los Angeles, Wally’s in West Los Angeles, Liquor Exchange in Orange, and, in San Diego, Liquor Land and Vintage Wines Ltd.