2009 Figgins Estate Red Wine

Bottled in July of last year and comprising a roughly 60-40 Cabernet Sauvignon-Merlot blend (Petit Verdot didn’t make the cut this year due to the late frost), Figgins’ 2009 Estate Red is stunningly scented with perfumed essence of iris and violet as well as ripe dark berries and high-toned, resinous green herbs and geranium. The effect is like Merlot contributing Chartreuse liqueur! (Is this a sweet spot to plant that grape or what?) The palate combination of seamless high ripeness and satiny polish with levity, billowing inner-mouth florality and sheer energy is utterly uncanny, and the finish is so juicy you’ll need a napkin. If you’ve visited the site, it’s hard not to imagine its airy openness reflected here in liquid form. And this is a libation you’re likely to desire following for at least the next dozen years. (And perhaps its tannins will become more evident in the mid term.) What Chris Figgins, with only a little irony, calls “my viticultural masterpiece to date” is a 32- acre knoll of 1,750 foot elevation not far from his family’s Mill Creek Upland Vineyard. (The site had been clear ever since its timber – the nearest available – was harvested in 1858 to build Fort Walla Walla) Here, according to Figgins, “17 minutes after sunset every night – not 15, not 22 – the (nearby) canyon dumps its load of cold air. I didn’t want this to be another Leonetti vineyard,” he adds by way of explaining his decision to make this site the source for an independent label. “Having made several trips to Europe, I had developed my own ideas” both about viticulture and about the model of a one-wine estate. (Any juice that doesn’t make the cut for grand vin will be sold off in bulk.) The first full crop was harvested in 2008 (what was picked in 2007 got bulked-out) and anyone who is skeptical about young vines’ ability to make great wine is going to have trouble explaining the results. For now, winemaking takes place at a studio on the edge of town. Fermentation is generally by inoculation, although Figgins is experimenting with spontaneous lots. As is also the case with Leonetti fruit from Mill Creek Upland, young wine is generally pressed before reaching dryness, and with equipment that makes possible a 360 degree drain surface and ultra-gentle, slow, juice-filtering release, all among factors designed as adaptations to what Figgins considers the inherent proclivity of sites in this sector to yield “masculine” wine tending toward tanninity and power. Tel. (509) 526-8040