Accolades Echo From Two Great Valleys;
Kestrel and Landmark Featured in September

By Kathy Ward

Hear that resonating cheer? Columbia Valley has a new award-winning winery, Kestrel Vintners. Paired with Landmark Vineyards of California's Sonoma Valley, both regions will share the podium for kick off of the 1999-2000 program year. Join the resounding enthusiasm for this dynamic duo tasting paired with food courses by the Madison Park Café.

Launched in 1995 with custom crush wines, Kestrel opened their newly constructed Prosser, Washington, facility in February this year. Early vintages are winning top honors. If you missed the Gold Award Kestrel '95 Cabernet Sauvignon at the recent Northwest Wine & Food Festival, here's your chance to try it. The Beverage Testing Institute also recognized this Cab as Exceptional, awarding 94 points. Kestrel's '96 Chardonnay, from a rare clone planted in the 25-year-old Hinzerling Vineyard, garnered an Exceptional rating as well.

Ray Sandidge, who once teamed with Brian Carter making Apex Cellars wines and later worked for Hyatt Vineyards, is now Kestrel's full-time winemaker. The '96 Merlot, from the "big freeze" year that reduced Eastern Washington production dramatically, ironically reflects Ray's insistence on lower tonnage yields for the varietal. Normally, Merlot grapes produce five tons per acre, but he prefers that only half that amount remains on the vines for Kestrel wines.

Come learn more about Kestrel, predominantly a red wine producer, and how plans for full production are shaping up. This winery is high caliber, one you'll want to know.

land'märk, n. Any fixed, conspicuous object that distinguishes a locality, guides travelers, or defines the boundary of a territory.

Landmark Vineyards is exactly that - a milepost in the Sonoma Valley since Mike and Mary Colhoun moved west to run his mother's winery. Sourcing from vineyards in Sonoma, Santa Barbara and Monterey counties, they focus on the Burgundian varietals Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

In a feature article this year, Wine Spectator noted: "Since 1993, Landmark's Chardonnays have been among the most exciting wines made in California, combining uniformly high quality with excellent value."

With the philosophy that naturally produced wines are best, Landmark follows a minimalist, non-interventionist policy (such as relying on indigenous vineyard yeasts rather than commercial products) in crafting wines. Their credo: Winemakers can certainly aid but rarely improve on the perfection of nature.

A Reserve Chardonnay on the tasting card is namesake of Damaris Ethridge, an original investor, current stockholder and Mike's mom. Overlook and Grand Detour are names transplanted from the Midwest, home of the family's famous ancestor John Deere, inventor of the steel plow.

The Pinot Noir is a single-vineyard selection, which Robert Parker Jr. described as "full-bodied, hedonistic, yet intellectually satisfying." (Gotta love that wine talk!)

For an early look at their wines, go to www.landmarkwine.com. You'll enjoy visiting this most elegant Web site.

Guest speakers for the tasting are John Clark, General Manager of Kestrel Vintners, and Barry Richter, Western Regional Sales Manager for Landmark Vineyards.

The Madison Park Café, a neighborhood eatery in the stylish Madison Valley for two decades, is catering the September program with taste bites prepared by chef Michael Richman.

That quietly reverberating sound is all your friends marking their calendars for this September 8 program. Don't miss out. Arrive early and you'll have a better chance of sitting together.

The site is St. Demetrios Cultural Center in Seattle. Doors open at 7 p.m., and the program begins promptly at 7:30. Reservations are not necessary.

Plastic cups are provided for wine tasting. If you prefer, bring your own glass - better yet, two for comparative tasting. Enological Society logo glasses can be purchased at the meeting.