William Pollard Jr | aka: Wild 4 Washington Wine

photo: Hightower Cellars 09 Cabernet Sauvignon. Hightower Cellars is located at the very top of Red Mountain. To visit the tasting room, you drive to the top of Sunset road, take a left on to a gravel road and then take the second right, that is the gravel road which will lead you to Hightower Cellars winery and tasting room. They have a lovely view of the valley below, and even lovelier wines. Tasting notes. My first impressions of the Hightower Cellars 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon: Bottle is tall, punt is deep; which I like when pouring for guests. The long cork presented well and was fun to remove. Dark color, a bit cloudy. Cherry, vanilla, chocolate, truffle oil, pepper mill on nose at opening. Good mouth feel, silky tannin, pleasantly bright top of palate. Cherry, vanilla, cocoa slid into the medium finish. At the 30 minute window: Nose had expanded, cherry/chocolate with a minty floral quality, unexpected and delightful. Fuller in the mouth, cheek...

Hightower Cellars 2008 Out of Line and 2008 Murray Syrah Friday, I was out looking for a birthday present, for a fellow wine lover. While browsing through the birthday cards, I started to think about the most memorable wines of 2010. Which wines did I truly enjoy last year? And which of those wines would be the perfect wine gift? Ah ha! Hightower Cellars Murray Syrah! I last reviewed Hightower Cellars 2008 Murray Syrah in August 2010 . Tim and Kelly Hightower planted the vines for that wine on their Red Mountain property, a mix of mostly Syrah and some Viognier – a classic Rhone style blend. They enjoyed the first fruits of their labor in their 2007 Murray Syrah – a vintage I missed out on. The 2008 Murray Syrah really appealed to me. But where would I be able to purchase a bottle, in time for the party? When in doubt, drive to their Red Mountain winery of course. Open for Tasting: Hightower Cellars Red Mountain Winery Hightower Cellars is located at the very top of Red Moun...

A Rhone Style Red by Hightower Cellars While I was out visiting Red Mountain today, I stopped by Hightower Cellars for a tasting. My last visit to Hightower Cellars was two years ago. I was there as a volunteer helping bottle several hundred cases of wine. That was also the day I had too much heat and was put to rest on the tasting room floor ( read about my embarrassment here ). Today Tim and Kelly Hightower were not around, but the friendly tasting room manager was. She was a great hostess and very knowledgeable about the current releases. The current tasting line-up, they are all good. All of the Hightower wines I sampled today were very good. While these are all red wines, I'm told there is an upcoming white wine release, soon, soon. Okay, enough already, what I came home with was a bottle of their 2008 Murray Syrah. That's Murray on the bottle. This wine is named after Tim and Kelly's first winery dog, Murray - his picture is on the bottle. What's especi...

Catching Up with July It was my good fortune last month to sample many excellent Washington wines. I'm including a few pics of some of the wines I enjoyed. This list is certainly not complete, but I don't snap photos of every bottle I drink. Some of the bottles you don't see here, that must be mentioned, include: Fidelitas and Kestrel. My palette must be shifting around, as I really enjoyed both Kestrel and Fidelitas wines - several bottles mind you - just to be sure. Fidelitas: http://www.fidelitaswines.com/ Kestrel: http://www.kestrelwines.com/ Here are some photos in no particular order. Hightower Cellars - located on Red Mountain, I enjoyed their 2006 Pepper Bridge, Walla Walla red wine with friends - it was fricking awesome - go find some and enjoy. Check out their tasting room if you are in the area. Tim and Kelly Hightower are a blast to visit with. Hightower Cellars: http://hightowercellars.com/ Goose Ridge, g3 2006 Red Wine, a tasty red with a good dose of Syrah. ...

A View from the Tasting Room Floor Up. Last week I had quite the ex perience helping b ottle wine at Hightower Cellars on Red Mountain. As a Washington Wine Ambassador, www.washingtonwine.org/ , I receive occasional invites to help wineries, small and large, with events and other activities. The most recent invite was to help Hightower Cellars bottle their 2006 vintage s. Since I n ever bottled w ine before, I thought this would be a good opportunity to volunteer and see fo r myself what it is lik e. Red Mountain is only a 15 minute drive from my home, so I arrived at the w inery at approximately 9:30 AM ready to work.  Tim and Kelly emptying barrels. Kelly and Tim Hightower are the winemakers of Hightower Cellars. Hightower was originally located in Woodinvi lle, Washington. But, with the purchase of land on Red Mountain, along with water rights, they’ve been producing o utstanding wines on Red Mountai n sinc e they moved there in 2002. Mobile Bottling Hightower d...