With visitors in town and steak on the menu, I knew it was time to pull out a specialty wine for the night. Fortunately, my Barnard Griffin shipment had just arrived, so I reached for the 2015 Merlot that we had tried while on our visit to the winery in March 2019 and knew that it would be the perfect night for it.
Cody and I visited the Barnard Griffin vineyard while we were in Richland, Washington, for his Badger Mountain 50 mile run. After his race on Friday, we went winery hopping on Saturday and Sunday and we absolutely fell in love with the Barnard Griffin tasting room space, the servers there, and the glass art both in the space and in the school that adjoined it. We enjoyed ourselves so much, that we ended up joining their wine club as well as purchasing a few pieces of glass art for our home.
Rob Griffin started the Barnard Griffin vineyard with his wife, Deborah Barnard in 1983. Rob grew up helping to work in vineyards for his uncle and then later attended college with a focus in Fermentation Science. They started with borrowed grapes and a rented cellar and have since expanded to become one of the most recognized names for wine in Eastern Washington. Their vines are located in the Columbia Valley viticulture region, which is known for it’s warm, arid temperatures, abundant sunlight, and rich soil leftover from the Missoula floods. However, half of the grapes that go into winemaking for Barnard Griffin are actually sourced from other areas in Washington State. This makes the winery a very important part of the Washington wine economy. *
This wine was from Richland, Washington and sampled on May 18, 2019. The color was a very deep maroon and scents of dark overripe plums drifted from the glass. A deeper inhale revealed other scents of river stones. It made me think of finding the perfect skipping stone when I was younger and vacationing with my family at the river. The first taste was a bit surprising because it was sawdust on the tip of the tongue. As it moved around though, the big and juicy flavors of black cherry and black plum came forward. It’s very fruit-forward and dark. The mouthfeel was very smooth. The steak was so hefty; that the wine was right on the line of not being able to hold up, but it towed it and made for a great pairing that everyone around the table enjoyed.
I gave this wine a rating of 4.5. I could see enjoying this wine with or after a meal. It was very dark and might serve as a fitting nightcap or pairing for a scary movie.
Sources: https://barnardgriffin.com/our-story