Hyatt Vineyards Volume no. 1 Issue No. 6 April 15th, 1997 Calendar of Events for 1997 at Hyatt Vineyards Spring Barrel Tasting April 25-27th Get your T-shirt and glass Old West Wine Fest Sep. 27th good eats and Harvest activities Thanksgiving in the Wine Country 10th Anniversary Celebration It's beginning to feel a lot like spring, and here at Hyatt Vineyards we are gearing up for the 1997 wine season. We thank all of you that ventured out through the snow for Thanksgiving in the Wine Country. We enjoyed sharing with you our delicious Salmon Spread. Red Wine and Chocolate was a huge success in February. We had great weather and the picnicers rejoiced. Spring Barrel Tasting is rapidly approaching, mark the weekend of April 25th on your calendar. We will offer special pricing on select wines, a light jazz group "Minor Damage", barbeque from Cattlemans, and of course, our 1995 Cabernet from the barrel! Zillah now has a Comfort Inn of its own and reservations should be made well in advance of Barrel Tasting. Check out the new Yakima Valley Wine Tour map, it has an insert detailing special events throughout the Yakima Wine Country. Our tasting room will be boasting new releases soon, and o course, beautiful porcelain and grape giftware. Our picnic area provides a wonderful view of the estate vineyards and orchards as well as a gorgeous view of Mt. Adams and The Cascades. This area is available for special events and with over 27,000 square feet of room there should be adequate space for all. Mooch, our winery cat, loves turkey, salmon, cheese and..., keep her in mind when planning your lunch! Hope to see you all soon! Carrie Curtin Wines Of Note Soon to be released is our 1994 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. 1994 has proven to be an incredible vintage with superb fruit quality. The stringent barrel selection process employed to craft this wine proved to be time consuming as some 155 barrels of Cabernet Sauvignon from this outstanding "benchmark" vintage were tasted. Ultimately, 11 barrels were decided upon for the final blend. 9 more were Cabernet Sauvignon, one each Merlot and Cabernet Franc. The vineyards which supplied the grapes were; the Hyatt estate and Klipsun. Both located in the Yakima Appelation. The wine may be described as very dark violet-red in color. Concentrated-focused aromas and flavors of spice, cedar, bramble fruits and black sweet cherries dovetail beautifully into the firm rich tannins to produce an exceptional wine. The body is very full, providing one with an exceptionally long and generous finish. This wine was aged in the barrel for 18 months and 247 cases have been produced. Already available in the tasting room is our 1995 Sauvignon Blanc Icewine. Truly a "gift of nature", our latest isewine shows off a wine of tremendous quality. Picked while stil frozen n the vine, our estate vineyard yielded a very small crop of 46.8 Brix syrup which was rich not only in sugar but in acids and flavors as well. The grapes were 75-85% botrytiszed which added more complexity to this already massive wine. 80 cases were produced and it was released December 16, 1996. This wine is the color of straw gold with the aromas of almond, honey, ripe summer apples, passion fruits, and pineapple. The rich acidity that is in balance now will soften and enable this wine to age gracefully for decades. The finish is extremely full and fades gloriously after what seems and eternity. P.S. Sadly we must say goodbye to a good friend, the 1993 Fume Blanc is gone forever, it will be greatly missed. P.P.S. On a brighter note, 16 cases of 1990 Cabernet Sauvignon have been discovered and is now available in the tasting room! "Ray Cornered" What is that thing sealing my $16.00 bottle of Merlot?! Siply put, it is a modern bottle closure (a cork) made of thermoplastic elastomer. You know, the same material used to make heart valves (no kidding!). These past fifteen years have seen the world's wine industry grow by leaps and bounds. The existing cork-tree forests simply have been stretched to nature's limits in order to produce enough corks. As a result, a lot of inferior cork material has been sold to wineries. The consequences have been dismal. The incidence of "corked" wines has risen from one-half of one percent in the late 70's-early 80's to between 7-15% of all bottles sold being tainted with "corked" wine. What is "corked" wine you ask? Well let us start with the cork making process. Once cork trees reach a harvestable age, which is 30+ years old, the outer layer of bark is stripped off for use in making wine corks. The tree may not be harvested for cork bark again for another 9 years! Anyway, the cork bark is transported from the forests to the cork factory where it is dried, corks are punched out, then washed in some cases, bleached out with a chlorine soak and then rinsed again with fresh water several times. Now due to a cork being what used to be a living part of a tree, it brought along the microflora (molds, etc.) with it when it was removed from the tree. It is these molds which react to the chlorine and water washes to produce in some instances, a "corked" wine. In many cases, no matter what the process (i.e. wash or no wash) is utilized, the molds are still present and beautiful wines are spoiled. A wine which is corked possess the following traits; the smell and taste of damp basements, extremely dirty sweat socks or your basic laundry hamper aroma. Very undesirable to say the least! It is estimated that U.S wineries alone lose an estimated $250,000,000 per year to corked wines. Therefore, we Winemakers have had enough. We are no longer going to sit still while our labourius vineyard and loving cellar efforts are ruined by a twenty cent piece of tree bark. Here enters the synthetic cork into the picture. It looks very promising. It eliminates corked wines. Actually helps wine age longer in the bottle because there is no or little air passing through the cork to the wine. It is an FDA-approved, environmentally responsible closure; is a product of consistent quality. Does not crumble when being removed. Is recyclable and...makes that same gorgeous sound when pulled from each and every one of our bottles!!! So, you ask, "what has taken Winemakers so long to insure that each and every bottle of your precious wine we purchase will not be tainted with corked aromas and flavors?" The answer is simple, we were, and in some instances still are, worried you would not understand the elastomer plastic cork.. We felt you would deem it inferior to a piece of tree bark. Change is almost always met with resistance. I believe and hope you understand this evolution in bottle closures as we Winemakers strive to insure every bottle of wine you purchase brings you the enjoyment youdesire it to provide you and your guests with. I sincerely hope I have explained the problem of "corked" wines to each of you (our readers) and consumers of fine wines. Plus, left you with an understanding that the synthetic closure we find so different and revolutionary now is being regarded with the same resistance and skepticism as that incurred by the infamous monk "Dom Perignon" when he first proposed and utilized as a closure more than 300 years ago known as a cork. You know, the bark of a tree. A Moment On The Lips... God help me, I love food!!! This issue finds me going on about "Medallions of Lamb with Merlot and Pecan Sauce!!" The dish is quite easy to prepare with the resultant gastronomical rewards being exceptional. The recipe is as follows: Medallions of Lamb with Merlot and Pecan sauce Romain lettuce or spinach strips 2 lbs. boneless lamb loins Salt and pepper 4 TBS olive oil Flour for dredging 2 TBS vinegar 1/2 c pecan halves 2 TBS minced green onion 1-1/2 c Hyatt Merlot 1-1/2 TBS miced garlic 1 TBS powdered mustard 7 TBS butter (yes, butter!) Dredge lamb loin in flour after seasoning with salt and pepper. Saute in olive oil over medium high (2-3 minutes on each side). Save juices!! Place lamb in baking dish and cook for 7-10 minutes at 400F, striving for medium rare. While cooking lamb, saute green onions and garlic in the reserve lamb juices. Add our Hyatt Merlot as the onions brown. Stir in pecans and mustard and reduce until thickened slightly. Remove sauce from heat. Whisk in butter and vinegar. Slice lamb loins diagonally to the grain, around 3/4" thick. Arrange medallions over greens and top with sauce. Serve immediately!! Serving our Hyatt Merlot, you shall not push away from the table unsatisfied!! Linguine with Tomato-Asparagus sauce With our own Yakima Valley Asparagus soon to be found in local produce sections of your favorite supermarket, try this simple, yet pleasing, treat. 2 lbs. fresh asparagus 1 pound linguine 4 TBS olive oil 4 TBS grated parmesan 8 Italian plum tomatoes, strained 3 ozs. Hyatt Cab-Merlot Salt and pepper to taste Trim and wash asparagus well. Suate garlic and asparagus in olive oil until garlic is golden. Add tomatoes, cook slowly at low heat for about 40 minutes, adding wine after 20 minutes, stirring frequently. Cook linguine in rapidly boiling, salted water until tender. Drain and place on hot platter, gently spoon tomato-asparagus sauce. Sprinkle with parmesan. Serve hot. Serves 6. Enjoy our non-vintage Cab-Merlot.