The Beaune Yard

The Winery says: It started out as 86 acres of worthless desert. But today, it’s known as the winemaking pioneer of the Red Mountain appellation. And it’s called Kiona Vineyards. Located in Eastern Washington State, Kiona Vineyards produces astounding wine grapes with the bright fruity intensity of the Yakima Valley and the rich, full-bodied character of the Columbia River Basin.  

The bottle says: Yowser, Glorious, Unbelievable, more please, WOW.

First point to note is that I picked up this ’03 at Catch the Crush in ’05.    If you get a chance to go to CTC you really need to.  It is a great time and a real fun way to learn about wines.  You pay a couple of buck and get access to some great wineries.  Next, I was very concerned that this wine was going to have gone bad.   It is a bit old and I was not sure that it would still be good.  The first taste of the wine was a little odd.  I was not expecting the tastes that I got.  It even took a second for me to figure out the taste that I had.  Then it hit me, Port.  It was not strong like a port but it had a nice smooth finish that you could imagine sniffing and drinking a nice port.  I thought maybe that the taste would fade the second day but it really held up.  One of the things that you do need to know about this wine is that it really doesn’t fit well with dinner but is a better fit for after dinner.  More of a sipping wine versus something that you would dive into.  I actually took three nights to finish this bottle.  For those of you who know me this is a record of some sort but not a complaint.

Remember that life is too short for bad wine or bad friends.