No Mercy from Gramercy Cellars!

No Mercy from Gramercy!

Behind an iron gated front label, within walls of glass and under cork is a wine like few others from Washington State, resting undisturbed in patience. “GARSON!!” That is until a savvy or rather lucky--and equally fortunate wine patron orders a bottle from our “Damn Good Wine List”, here at Bastille Café & Bar. The wine, Gramercy Cellars “Inigo Montoya” Tempranillo 2007, is without a doubt Walla Walla at its very best. It’s made by Greg Harrington, the youngest American to ever pass the Master Sommelier Exam, and he has a merciless approach to his winemaking. Greg’s work with this grape (Tempranillo), has quite simply dumbfounded the Washington wine community with its only recently realized potential.

Gramercy Cellars was founded in 2005 by Greg and his wife Pam, who handles the marketing and retail sales. Their philosophy to making wine is the following: in order to make truly great wines it takes minimal intervention, great vineyards, time and patience. They look to select only the very best grapes, harvest ripe (not overripe) and avoid smothering the wine in new oak, like so many in the business do. Regardless, the point is, IT’S FRICKIN’ WORKING!!!

The levels of complexity that this wine achieves are staggering, here are my tasting notes: Dried fruits of raisins and dates; fall leaves; earth; and a medley of fresh wild red, black and blue fruit--it’s a wine for thinking. I sensed moderate levels of alcohol and noted a lacing of firm acidity. A focus wine for me, is one that has no apparent end or beginning, and it slithers down the center of you palate. This wine does just that for me. Add to that a bite of braised beef or a morsel of wild mushroom…have another sip, and time becomes easily lost, also seemingly endless. I could go on…

For all things holy, take the time to taste this wine. It may not be on the Bastille wine list for long. Other wines listed from Greg Harrington include: Gramercy Cellars Syrah “Lagniappe” and Wines of Substance, Cabernet Sauvignon (his second label), by the glass for $10. Show no mercy!

Dave Bender is a sommelier and

Bastille Wine Culture

Wine Culture at Bastille

One of the challenges of running the Bastille wine program lies in finding great value wine that performs above it’s price tag. I feel strongly that we couldn’t offer so much good wine at such reasonable prices if we didn’t have France as our main subject. That is partly due to “winonomics” and partly to the French wine tradition.

Wine is indivisible from French Culture. Its consumption within France is largely regional; you are as likely to find Burgundians drinking Bordeaux as you are to find the Bordelais drinking Burgundy, which is to say, rarely, if ever. You are equally likely to find a Frenchman drinking wine without food, which is one reason why most of what is consumed in France is simple wine – typical of the region in which it is grown, accessible, delicious. Most of us can’t afford to drink Montrachet with every meal, and even if we could, we wouldn’t want to (and even if we wanted to, there ain’t enough of it). It would be inappropriate – too grand – for a croque monsieur. Save the Montrachet for the milestones, drink Mâcon along the way.

This basic logic informs the culture that we wish to promote at Bastille. Most of our list is at the village level, with a drop or two of the more elevated stuff. Nonetheless, we treat it all as worthy of our attention and study. Sauternes and foie gras can be marvelous, but so can Pic St.-Loup and charcuterie. We hope to serve wines that speak of the soil in which they were grown, not because we’re snobby Francophiles but because those wines tend to be full of character and typically pair well with food.

It’s not all about French wine, of course – we do have some damn good wine from our own back yard to pick from. But the premise holds; if we can’t serve it with food, if it isn’t full of character, we don’t serve it. Washington and Oregon have a ways to go in order to catch up with the French at the value level, but they are well on their way. We are thrilled to support the winemakers and growers who are pushing Northwest wine in the right direction.

Within these blogs we hope you’ll get a glimpse of some of the characters we put to use night in and night out. We’ll feature short, informative, engaging pieces by one of our star sommeliers, Dave Bender, with additions from the rest of the staff and myself.

À votre santé!

James Lechner
Wine Director