From 1974 to 1990, he was at the helm at Chateau St. Jean in Sonoma County, crafting wines that would lay the groundwork for decades of success at that establishment. Nearing the end of his tenure there, Dick and his wife Alis founded Arrowood Winery in 1986, making wines in a cozy setting in the foothills of Sonoma County.

They dedicated their time to producing wines that carried Dick Arrowood’s personal touch, soft textures, intense flavors, and supple finish. Each sip a mouthful; each glass a banquet.

Arrowood remained with that enterprise until June 2010 when he left the winemaking at his eponymous winery to Heidi von der Mehden and began another venture. This time, like the previous two, it is in Sonoma County and is called Amapola Creek, after the creek that runs through the property.

  The vineyards are on Mayacamas Mountains and are farmed organically by famed vineyard manager Phil Coturri. True to his roots, Arrowood specializes in Cabernet Sauvignon, a sumptuous wine that is hard to put down. But in a nod to his wife and constant partner, he’s created another bottling called Cuvée Alis, a blend of syrah and grenache. They also produce Zinfandel from the Monte Rosso vineyard, a site that has long been extolled by wine lovers for the depth and concentration of the wines it yields.

I haven’t tasted the Syrah, Zinfandel, or Cuvée Alis, but I recently had the opportunity to taste the Amapola Creek 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon. I have to say I wasn’t stunned – but that’s because I’ve come to expect so much from Dick Arrowood. And, once again, he has lived up to the Olympian standards he set when he first set foot in Sonoma County. Stunned, surprised? No. Infatuated? Yes.

Notes: Amapola Creek 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon ($70). Ebulliently fruity and forward, yet elegant and refined. Flavors tend toward black cherries and plums, with hints of tobacco and cassis. A vein of toast and roasted coffee bean threads through the palate, wrapped in velvety smooth textures.

John suggested Peay Vineyards “La Bruma” Syrah, Sonoma Coast.  The wine is deep purple and offers dark berries and fig on the nose.  The wine is medium-bodied, and tightly wound at first so it would benefit from decanting.  Bacon fat, berry and graphite are ushered in by supple tannins.

John has worked side-by-side with James Beard Award-winning chef Nancy Oakes for 14 years.  ”At Boulevard I take a global view of wine, offering a little bit of everything.  Our wines by the glass are chosen to fit snugly with food, and our bottle list is readable, not daunting,” said John.

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Mollydooker. Among the exhibitors is Brian Pasch, blogger at weloveshiraz.com and representative of Mollydooker Wines. The Weekly Wine Pick has already reviewed Mollydooker’s the Boxer, and I covered the Scooter Merlot. Today, I had the opportunity to be among the few people to get an early tasting of the 2009 vintage, which is exceptional. These are very big, high-alcohol wines that are well balanced, extra rich, and silky smooth. Enjoy them with your summer grillings. Today, a personal favorite was the Blue Eyed Boy Shiraz, which is bursting with fruit and richness. There will be more coverage of Mollydooker wines at the live logging session latter.

Canoe Ridge. Next, I tasted some of the local wine from Walla Walla. Presented by the winemaker, Ned Morris, Canoe Ridge wines are made in an old world style. He offered an Alsatian-styled dry Riesling, a Merlot and a Cabernet Sauvignon. My favorite was the Cabernet, which offers rich cedar and delivers big, showing Walla Walla’s greatness.

Lake Chelan AVA Wines. Washington State’s newest American Viticultural Area–Lake Chelan–also hosted a table with more than a dozen fantastic wines. This region is a bit cooler than others in Washington State, and its Northern-facing slopes offer climates to grow some cool-climate grapes like Pinot Noir and Riesling. The wines were so good that it was hard to pick just a few to highlight! Among the most interesting was a small-production Pinot Noir made by Judy Phelps of Hard Row to Hoe winery (see the website for story behind this title). It was full of smoky oak yet retained a rich fruity flavor. There were no vegetal or off notes on this one. It was delicious. It’s a home run, particularly given it is the first Pinot produced by this winery! Production is small for this yet-to-be released wine, but check the website to see if you can eventually get your hands on one.

The Chelan table also featured Vin du Lac wines, presented by the winemaker, Dreux Dillingham. Among their offerings is a perfect, fresh summer sipper–a dry and refreshing Riesling. Like the Hard to Hoe Pinot, it is grown on Northern-facing slopes, which are cooler, ensuring a crisp and refreshing quality. Vin Du Lac also had a fantastic red table, which is a blend of a number of grapes. It delivers big for a moderate price and is available around the nation. Keep an eye out for these Chelan AVA wines or search for them on wine-searcher or at winery websites.

Participating Wineries include Bonny Doon Vineyard, Cline Cellars, Clos Saron, D.H. Gustafson Family Vineyards, Fess Parker Winery & Vineyards, Folin Cellars, Guy Riedel Wines, Katin, Rocca Family Vineyards, Sawtooth Winery, Stage Left Cellars, Stark Wine, Tablas Creek Vineyard, Tarara Winery, Tercero Wines, Terry Hoage Vineyards, and Vina Robles.

Winemaker Rob Folin

The Rhone Rangers held a press tasting at Zola Kitchen yesterday featuring outstanding white wines made from Viognier, Roussanne and Grenache Blanc, and reds made from Syrah, Grenache and Mourvedre.  My favorites were:  Folin Cellars 2008 “Misceo” red blend from Oregon, which was lush and velvety with layers of dark berry and a hint of cocoa; Tablas Creek 2008 “Cotes de Tablas Blanc”, which offered hints of tropical fruit, melon and citrus with great acidity; and Terry Hoage’s (the Redskins Superbowl Champ) “Skins” Grenache which was peppery with plums and very refined.

If you can’t catch them while they are in town tonight at the Smithsonian, their wines are definitely worth seeking out.

Cline Cellars was founded by Fred Cline, grandson of Valeriano Jacuzzi, inventor of the Jacuzzi tub (Cline also owns Jacuzzi Vineyards).  However, the Jacuzzi family also grew vines on a farm in Oakley–located in Costra County, California–where Fred Cline spent his summers learning about farming. Planted as far back as the 1800s, these vines include two Rhone grapes: Mourvèdre and Carignane as well as Zinfandel. After inheriting these ancient vineyards, Fred Cline launched Cline Cellars, which now makes wines from the vines at the Oakley vineyard, some of which are more than 100 years old.  Low yielding, these plants produce rich and intensely flavored wines.

In the early 1990s, Cline eventually moved with is wife Nancy to the Carneros region of Sonoma County where they planted more Rhone varietals—Syrah, Mourvèdre, Roussanne—which were not commonly planted in that relatively cooler region. But Cline Cellars has produced some amazingly good results, proving that the area was good for a wider range of varietals than Pinot Noir and other cool climate grapes common in Carneros.  Cline also owns vineyard land in nearby Petaluma.

Cline Cellars is now counted among a host of wineries that make Rhone-styled wines in America that are collectively called “The Rhone Rangers.” Several Rhone Rangers are coming to D.C. for an event on June 10 for wine trade and  press.  However, they are offering  a select-number of tickets for the public; book your space ASAP before they run out!. See the Weekly Wine Pick Event Calendar for more information.

You don’t have to attend this event to find great Cline wines. I enjoy the full spectrum of their portfolio and would recommend any of them.  However, below I list a few favorites.

Big Break Zinfandel.  Aged 11 months in French oak, this is an incredibly rich and well-balanced Zinfandel from very old vines grown in the Big Break vineyard of Oakley.  The land is also near a Eucalyptus grove, which somehow imparts Eucalyptus mint flavors into the wine.  Although a very big wine with intense flavor, it is still soft and approachable; and it can last up to 7 years in the cellar.  The Wine Spectator gives it 89 points, but I think it should be at least a 90!  This wine is so good that it’s worth paying the shipping if you can’t find it locally.  I recently discovered it on Wine.com for about $27 per bottle.  Wine.com is a good mail order business if you like to shop regularly online because you can pay an annual shipping rate of $49 to cover all shipping costs for an entire year.

Cline Cashmere.  I recently discovered this one at Whole Foods for about $16 a bottle.  The name for this Mourvèdre, Grenache, Syrah blend is on the mark as its most immediately notable quality is an unusually silky and soft texture on the palate.  That is followed by delicate fruit flavors.  The winemaker notes describe it very well:  “Cashmere is a very flavorful smooth wine offering big cherry, raspberry and chocolate notes with hints of cracked black pepper and plum.”

Cline Cellars Zinfandel.  Cline’s value priced Zinfandel deserves much praise because it delivers big at a value price of about $10 a bottle.  Look for the 2008 vintage in particular, which is probably on the shelves now.  This wine is a blend of grapes from Cline’s Oakley vineyard as well as grapes from Sonoma and other parts of California including Lodi (69 percent of the 2008 blend).  Winemaker notes explain that it “showcases a wide array of dark berry fruit including black cherry and raspberry … spice notes and a lasting finish of Vanilla from oak aging and firm, supple tannins add complexity to the wine.”

Cline Late Harvest Mourvèdre, 2006.  This was highlighted in a post last week here on the Weekly Wine Pick, but it is worth noting again.  This is a very unique wine—a sweet red–which frankly surprised me with its rich smooth complex flavors.

Their many other wines also deserve praise. Check out their website to see the full list and keep an eye out when you shop.

Located in Australia’s Barossa Valley, the Colonial Estates winery is owned by British winemaker Jonathan Malthus, who established himself at his winery in Bordeaux in the 1990s. At that time, Maltus was dubbed a member of the “garage movement”—one of a number of winemakers in Saint Emillion making smaller-scale, modern style wines on relatively modest budgets compared to those of the Cru Classé estates in the area. At that time, he purchased then-run-down Saint Emillion’s Château Teyssier, which is modernized and restored, making great wines that embody both old and new world style. He has taken this success to the Colonial Estate vineyard in Australia as well as to his Napa Valley vineyard called World’s End.

Émigré prices range from $50 to more than $80 a bottle (the 2005 starts at $65 a bottle and other vintages at $49.00) on Winesearcher. If you are lucky enough to live near a Total Wine, you can pick one up for $50, which is a very good deal for this wine.

My contributing writers, Angela and Chris, and my neighbors, Scott and Shannon, came over to “help” me evaluate the Blue Rock Vineyard’s 2006 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, 2006 Estate Syrah, and the 2007 Baby Blue Estate Cabernet.  I opened the bottles about 90 minutes prior to guests arriving, as  Kenny Kahn encouraged me to let them breathe for as long as possible.  The Estate Cabernet was invincible, with a solid structure that revealed more and more layers of cinnamon, espresso, and cherry as we approached the bottom of the decanter.  This is a wine perfectly suited for juicy prime rib or a braised lamb shank.  I yearned for more time with this bottle.

The Baby Blue is an extremely approachable and versatile red which skillfully absorbed the acidity of the red sauce we served.  This wine is made primarily from the youngest vines on the Alexander Valley estate, and a steal at under $30.  The crowd favorite was unanimous:  The Estate Syrah was supple and velvety, with overt cocoa notes and deep aromas of black fruit.  This wine comes from a 2.5 acre hillside vineyard that yielded 175 cases in 2006.

There’s nothing like 3 great bottles to strengthen bonds with new friends.  Blue Rock’s wines can be found on the wine lists of the nation’s best restaurants, and via the winery’s mailing list (through which one can get dibs on Kenny’s Best Barrels wine, normally Cabernet, which is made only after the best vintages).

Tablas Creek winery is a partnership between the owners–Pierre and Jacques Perrin–of the France’s Rhone Valley-based Château de Beaucastel–and U.S. wine importer and founder of Vineyard Brands, Robert Haas.

Many great wines made in new-world regions are the products of similar partnerships between renowned winemakers from the old world and new. The result is many fine, new world wines that have the advantage of tradition, history, and knowledge of some of the world’s greatest wine houses.

Among the most famous of these in the U.S. is Opus One, which is a partnership between California’s Robert Mondavi and Baroness Philippine de Rothschild from Bordeaux, France. The Examiner also reviewed wines from Artesa Winery, which is a division of Codorníu, another old-world wine company. Located in Spain, Codorníu is responsible for coining the name of “cava,” which refers to Spanish sparking wine made using “méthode Champenoise.”

Image complements of Tablas Creek

Their signature white wine blend is the Esprit de Beaucastel Blanc, a white wine made with Roussanne, Grenache Blanc, and Picpoul Blanc grapes. It has earned high ratings from wine experts–Robert Parker (91 points) and Stephen Tanzer (92-94). It is also recommended by Charlie Palmer Steakhouse’s Sommelier Nadine Brown, who is featured in the July issue of the Sommelier Journal. You can enjoy a bottle of this wine for $51 here in DC with your meal at Charlie Palmer’s.

Tablas’s signature red wine is the Tablas Creek Vineyard Esprit de Beaucastel. The 2006 vintage is made with 45 percent Mourvedre; 28 percent Grenache; 22 percent Syrah; 5 percent Counoise. It rates 93 points by the Wine Spectator, 91-93 points by Robert Parker, and 93 points by Stephen Tanzer.  The 2006 Tablas Creek Vineyard Mourvedre is made with 90 percent Mourvedre and 10 percent Syrah, it rates 90 with the Wine Spectator. Also, keep your eye out for the 2007, which Tablas Creek owners say it the best vintage for this wine yet. Also delicious is Tablas Creek Vineyard Syrah, made with 90 percent Syrah and ten percent Grenache. It retails there for $35-$40.

Kristina has worked at some of California’s most exclusive dining destinations.  She takes pride in offering the Post Hotel’s guests access to classic wines that are ready to drink without having to break the bank.  Her cellar includes lots of older Burgundies and Bordeaux, and outstanding wines from Canada that are good representations of their varietals.

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A Robert Kacher Selection

This Week’s pick is offered by Brian Zipin, Wine Director at Central Michel Richard in Washington DC.  In anticipation of the upcoming big meal we will all enjoy on Thanksgiving day, we asked Brian to recommend a very big wine, and made the interview available on our podcast.  Here’s a portion of Brian’s comments:  ”The Cuvee Centenaire is an extremely powerful red wine that will appeal to a lot of different palates, lovers of both old world and new world wines alike.  It is a wine that is just starting to show itself.  I tasted it last week and it was explosive, with kirsh and a little bit of leather, but the fruit was extremely explosive and very present.  It’s also a wine that if you wanted to put it away for 10, 12 even 15 years, you could absolutely do it and it would turn into a completely different animal, but just as satisfying.  Get it into a decanter and give it an hour to an hour and a half.  This is what I think a good Chateauneuf-du-Pape should be!”  Hear more of our interview with Brian in our latest Wine Picks by Sommeliers podcast.

While complementary dishes like the lamb shanks and beef cheeks served brasserie-style at the James Beard Award-winning Central, this Grenache-Syrah-Mouvedre blend will make a fantastic contrast to the variety of dishes that may end up on your Thanksgiving table.  Starting at around $140 per bottle at retailers listing on Wine-Searcher, this is a prize to share with loved ones.