Woodinville Wine Cellars Sauvignon Blanc Red Mountain, Artz Vineyard 2005

[stevebody]

Sorry for the naked hyperbole but this is the best Sauv Blanc I've ever tasted. Ever. Sean Boyd, who has worked at Penfolds in Australia and Miguel Torres in Spain, took over the winemaking duties from Jeff Schackman recently and made an immediate splash with this stuff, some GLORIOUS fruit from Fred Artz, former manager of Klipsun, who now owns the next plot above Klipsun there on Red Mountain and grew these SB grapes because he thought Waterbrook's bottlings of Red Mountain SB had something.

Sean bought the grapes and knew he had quality he didn't want to clutter up, so he found a cooperage that sometimes makes barrels the old-fashioned way, by immersing the staves in running water for shaping. Sean wanted to wash the vanillins off the surface of the oak but leave the essential oils for butteriness and he got exactly that. The wine is Vibrant; big and generous but graceful and transparent. It gives me the odd impression of actually moving around on my tongue (sorry, can't find a better way to put it) and shows just a trace of butteriness that balances out the near-perfect acidity. It still has the tang of a good SB but not the bite. It also has some lovely orange and mint notes in the profile and a sweet, distinctive minerality. I'm just bowled over by this wine. If everything Sean makes is as good as this, you're going to want to keep your eye on Woodinville Wine Cellars.