On to part 3 of my Owen Roe series (you can find the other posts here - Owen Roe Winery & Owen Roe Winery Part 2). At first, I thought this would be a 3 post series, but, given some additional feedback from a few of you, I think I'll extend it out one more post to include 2 or 3 more Owen Roe wines - look for Part 4 soon.For this post, a little bit more about the winemaker at Owen Roe – David O'Reilly…a "...dapper man - meticulous in appearance and in his work...with a great palate and...one of the best marketing people in the state" (source: Avalonwine.com). Sounds right, given his success at Owen Roe and other projects, although I've never met him so can't say for certain if his appearance is meticulous. One thing I did not know about David until I started researching Owen Roe was that for 6 years, from 1992 - 1998, he was at Elk Cove winery in the marketing department. Elk Cove is one of our favorite Oregon wines, so much so that my wife I had their Pinot Noir at our wedding. In other words, he had me at "Elk Cove."
Eventually, David's eye moved to making wine and not just marketing wine, which, in my opinion, has created a powerhouse combination for Owen Roe. Not many winemakers have the marketing background he does and both that and his winemaking skills have served him and Owen Roe very well. With 43 wines scoring a 90 or better on Wine Spectator, it’s hard to argue with their success.
Most importantly, however, is what’s behind it all, what really matters. David is not a person drawn to wine business because he had millions in .com stock proceeds, nor did he see it as a second career after a long run at corporate life. In his words, “You don’t get into this business to make a fortune – I was drawn to it.” You can taste that sentiment in his wines. For me, I’ve always tasted something just a little different, a little unique about Owen Roe’s wines – nothing overly experimental, but at the same time nothing manufactured or catered to critic’s palates. These are just well made wines that are grounded in great fruit and nature.
With that, let's get to the wines for today - the 2007 Owen Roe Cabernet Franc Rosa Mystica and the 2006 Owen Roe Dubrul Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon.
2007 Owen Roe Cabernet Franc Rosa Mystica (bottle 7000 or 7728)
At $42 a bottle, this is no Lady Rosa (which is turning out to be the best Owen Roe of the tasting thus far), but a fine wine in it’s own right. On the nose, berry, plum, dust, mint and heat (a little more heat than I tend to like). Very similar in the mouth, but with a more distinct raspberry and blackcurrant taste. It’s surprisingly light in color for a Cabernet Franc, but with solid acidity and mild tannins. Ends with a nice and long, albeit hot, finish.What you should do: Buy it. It’s definitely worth trying. Not my favorite of the tasting so far, but very much stands on its own. A nice wine to have for a dinner party for guests who deserve a $42 bottle of wine. Otherwise, keep it for yourself – decant it for an hour before drinking and enjoy every sip.
My rating: 89
2006 Owen Roe Dubrul Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon (7497 of 9216 bottles)
I find it interesting that both of these bottles are labeled with the bottle number. With a flair for marketing, these guys definitely know what resonates with wine consumers – when there’s a number on the bottle, it feels special and unique, almost as if David signed it for you at the winery, but only after rifling through reams of dusty old books to find the right bottle number. HUGE nose on this thing. In fact, I had to pull the glass away from my nose on the first sniff – interesting aromas, but almost as if they all settled in the glass like a trapped bee, just waiting to seize on any innocent nose it could find. On the next sniff, this thing absolutely took off. Such an interesting array of aromas – blackberry, chocolate, sage and toffee predominately. In the mouth, those aromas came to life on an acid wave riding all the way through a long, lingering and lush finish. The Dubrul Cab is rich and silky, but not overbearing or chewy. Like the Rosa Mystica, it’s a little lighter than you would expect, but still packs a ton of flavor and balance.
What you should do: Buy it…with my usual expensive bottle caveat. This bottle is $72 at the winery and for a Washington wine, that’s still a high premium. Sure, there are plenty of $100+ bottles of wine coming out of Washington, but there are also far more exquisite $40 bottles of Washington wine than in, say, Napa. If you're a collector or can't stand drinking a bottle under $50, you won't be sorry, especially if you put it away for a couple years...you can thank me then.
My rating: 91 (WS gave it a 92)
WS 92
Gadget
I've had the Rosa Mystica...it's pretty good. I like the "new-world/ old world" thing that it has going on. Not as over the top as Napa, but still with good fruit, yet still poised like a good Chinon or Bourgueil. It still keeps it's Cab Franc character.
So what's the deal? Did you get lucky enough that they sent you a bunch of samples or are you just into Owen Roe?
i didn't get a bunch of samples from owen roe. i generally have a fair amount of their wine in my cellar (yes, i am a fan) and i decided i wanted to do a post series on a few of the wines. wasn't easy - there's very little information out there to pull from. thought there would be a lot more, but didn't turn out that way.
That's cool dude. I think one of the things that's different about wine blogs is that you don't get "comprehensive" coverage. I mean, it would be both expensive and a pain in the ass to hunt down all the wines from a single producer (or most, as is the case with these). So it's really cool you did that with Owen Roe, and different. I think that the reason they float under the radar is that they kind of don't make it too far out of the Northwest. I live in LA, and surprisingly to me, there aren't a lot of Washington wines available...but there's a ton of stuff from Napa. It's not really that far...but if they're not making it to the biggest city on the West Coast, then there's probably a lot less coverage of them and it's hard to get so people aren't as exposed to it. I suppose the Northwest probably snaps most of it up! As unfortunate as this is for us (fans), I bet that in a few years you'll see Owen Roe get the same status as some of the other marquis producers from Washington/Oregon like Leonetti, Cayuse, Hedges, Domaine Drouhin, etc...and that probably means that price will go up once people discover them.
Thanks, Jeff. I agree that you only get one or two wines from the wine blog world, but i'd like to change that a bit, at least for my blog. it's fun to support the wineries i like, but it's also an interesting exercise to taste a line-up of their wines. you can start to taste likenesses and better understand the differences.
it's even hard to find northwest wines here in san francisco - like you said, not that far away, but definitely not getting a load of it here. my go-to sellers have been k&l wines (they seem to be expanding their northwest wines, especially washington), esquin wine shop in seattle and, of course, the wineries / winemakers themselves. not always easy, but well worth the effort - so many good wines coming out of the northwest.
i lived in seattle for 15 years, up until 4 years ago, and the prices have already gone up considerably. still a lot of bargains to be found, especially in relation to california, but getting up there on the price.
look forward to chatting more in the future.
Funny you lived in Seattle for 15 years. I grew up there--just a little east in North Bend, and I graduated from the University of Washington. We must have moved to California at about the same time--I moved to Oakland in 2005. I remember when I moved to Oakland being struck by two things in particular--1. that you can buy hard liquor at the grocery store, and 2. that there were literally no Northwest wines to be found without searching.
Funny that you mention K&L and Esquin--K&L Hollywood is my go to place for wine, and Esquin is probably the most comprehensive shop in Seattle. If you ever get up to Seattle again and have some time though, you should check out Madison Cellars. The owner, Fred, is the guy that actually introduced me to Owen Roe (and as you mention, I remember buying that Abott's Table wine for I think about 15$ instead of the 20$ish it is now). We call him Malcovitch because he reminded all of my friends and I of John Malcovitch...he's a character.