Winery of the Year: Adelsheim, Newberg, OR
Adelsheim Winery, in Newberg, Oregon, is my 2008 Winery of the Year, though by rights it should probably bear the title Most 
Improved Winery of the Year. Founded by David and Ginny Adelsheim in 1971, it’s hardly new — in fact David is one of the region’s pioneers. For more than thirty years Adelsheim has been an energetic spokesman and champion of the region wherein he makes wine, and you could say along with a few other intrepid founders he carries on the legacy of the late David Lett, known in the region as “Papa Pinot,” who passed away this year at the age of 69.
Adelsheim specializes in Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, and Chardonnay, 
as well as a few other interesting anomalies like Tocai Friulano and Pinot Auxerrois. You probably know the wines – the labels have been traditionally adorned with portraits of beautiful women rendered in charcoal: composed, thoughtful, slightly reticent faces, gazing into a distance far beyond the walls of the wine shop you’ve found yourself in.
Even with this inimitable branding, Adelsheim has been, over the years, easy to dismiss. Its wines were dependable examples of what Oregon did best — well-structured, well-made, generally likable wines, but they were rarely remarkable; like the portraits on the label, the impression they left was cool and distant.
That has dramatically changed. In 2001 Adelsheim hired Californian David Paige, who shored up winery practices, 
imposed new fruit sorting regimes, and brought new focus and detail to the winemaking. Paige clearly hit his stride in the spectacular 2005 and 2006 vintages. All of the wines were excellent, but the Pinot Noirs really excelled. In six Pinot bottlings in 2006, Adelsheim yielded wines of astonishing clarity; limpid, beautifully structured wines that balanced brilliant, piercing fruit expression with a sensitivity to the subtle expressions of terroir as are found in the Willamette Valley, from Eola Hills to the Chehalem Range.
Wine of the Year: 2005 Pepper Bridge Seven Hills Vineyard Bordeaux Blend
Critics are finally giving Washington State its due, but much of the attention in the last few vintages has been focused on the Bordeaux-style reds of Red Mountain: formidable wines, to be sure, but suspiciously similar in structure and power to the reds of a certain valley in California that grabs a fair amount of attention on its own. (That would be Napa.)
Imitation may be a sincere form of flattery, but for distinctive Washington Bordeaux-style reds, oness with power but an inimitable terroir footprint, you must head to Walla Walla. Leafy, bright, savory, with flavors of sassafras, tobacco, sundried tomato and yunnan tea, no wines in this country have such a distinctive expression. Many wines carry the imprint – L’Ecole No. 41’s terrific “Apogee” and “Perigee” come to mind — but for me one stood out this year, Pepper Bridge Winery’s Seven Hills blend.
Winemaker Jean-Francois Pellet makes two blends each year to reflect a yin and yang of his fruit sources for the winery Pepper Bridge — a vineyard by the same name, and Seven Hills. Of the two, Seven Hills always displays a lighter touch in its youth; the tannins are a little more supple, the wine’s gravity always a little less gripping than the vines at Pepper Bridge. And in the outstanding vintage of 2005, this was no exception. The Seven Hills blend of 61% Cabernet, 39% Merlot displayed that vineyard’s high-toned, elegant fruit, all red plum and earthy 
spice. With air, notes of pipe tobacco and cedar wafted in, complementing savory flavors of brown bread spice and black cherry, and a mineral finish that was long and lasting. It was a great accompaniment to the roast pork my mother prepared for our Christmas dinner.
14