2004 Du Brul Vineyard Reserve: Wine Advocate
Thick and dense on the palate, with gobs of flavor, this full bodied effort demands 6-8 years of cellaring and should drink well through 2040.
The Winery
Interesting...
Tamarack Cellars was founded in 1998 by Ron and Jamie Coleman as the 14th winery in the Walla Walla Valley. Currently there are over 70 wineries in the Walla Walla Valley. The winery is dedicated to the production of small lot, hand-crafted wines from select vineyards of the Walla Walla Valley, Columbia Valley, Red Mountain, Horse Heaven Hills, Wahluke Slope and Yakima Valley appellations.
Tamarack Cellars was founded in 1998 by Ron and Jamie Coleman as the 14th winery in the Walla Walla Valley. Currently there are over 100 wineries in the Walla Walla Valley. The winery is dedicated to the production of small lot, hand-crafted wines from select vineyards of the Walla Walla Valley, Red Mountain, Rattlesnake Hills, Horse Heaven Hills, Wahluke Slope, Columbia Valley and Yakima Valley appellations. Tamarack Cellars is located in a restored World War II Fire Station and Barracks on a no longer operating Army Air Corps Training Base that has been transformed to the Walla Walla Airport Complex.
Production started with 300 cases of Merlot in 1998 and has continually grown to 8000 plus cases for the 2003 vintage, 10,000 cases for the 2004 vintage and 11,000 in 2005. Wines currently produced and bottled now at Tamarack Cellars include Chardonnay, Firehouse Red (a blend consisting from highest to lowest percentage, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Merlot and Cabernet Franc, Sangiovese and Carmenere), Merlot, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Sangiovese. Tamarack Cellars also bottles three different vineyard reserve wines from Seven Hills Vineyard of the Walla Walla Valley, DuBrul Vineyard of the Yakima Valley and Sagemoor Vineyard of the Columbia Valley. All three vineyard reserve wines are a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc with 100% of the fruit harvested from their respective vineyard. Seven Hills Vineyard is located in Milton-Freewater, Oregon (still considered the Walla Walla Valley AVA) just west of town while DuBrul Vineyard is on the slopes of the Rattlesnake Hills north of the town of Outlook, Washington and Sagemoor Vineyard is north of Pasco, Washington in the hills overlooking the Columbia River. Some wines are only available at the winery.
Other wines likely to be produced by Tamarack Cellars include a vineyard reserve blend representing another appellation in Washington State called Red Mountain. We currently source grapes from two vineyards on Red Mountain, Tapteil Vineyard and Ciel du Cheval Vineyard. In 2005 Tamarack Cellars was able to source some Malbec grapes from the Columbia Valley for the first time and anticipate these being added to the Firehouse Red although the possibility of a Malbec varietal bottling does exist.
Ron Coleman serves as Winemaker and General Manager of Tamarack Cellars. He comes to the job after a long career in the wine industry in Washington and nationally. Ron has experience in wholesale and retail wine sales, as a sommelier and wine buyer and through cellar work for Waterbrook and Canoe Ridge wineries of the Walla Walla Valley. Dan Gordon who started in 1999 serves as the Assistant Winemaker making the daily decisions concerning the wine along with some wine sales work and special event participation. Martin Ibarra started in 2002 and work full-time at the winery as the Cellar Foreman and maintaining the winery grounds.
