Quality Quotient

Washington’s Best Cabernets Show Consistency Over Time, While Syrahs Outpace the Field in Newer Vintages.

- Harvey Steiman

Rick Small bounds down a winding flight of stairs at his Woodward Canyon winery west of Walla Walla. He’s an energetic guy. Though he turns 70 next year, he often bicycles the 15 miles from his home in Walla Walla to the winery he founded in 1981 with his wife, Darcey.

Small pushes open a simple wooden door to reveal a wine cellar. The row upon row of well-stocked shelves would make any restaurant proud. The cellar holds older vintages of his own wines and also those of competitors in Washington.

A bottle of Woodward Canyon Cabernet Sauvignon Columbia Valley 1987 stands on a lone table. “That,” Small beams when I notice it, “was the first Washington state wine to crack the Wine Spectator Top 10.”

Indeed, the wine, which sold for $35 a bottle on release in 1990, earned a 95-point rating. “One of the greatest Washington Cabs we’ve tasted,” proclaimed the official tasting note, which also predicted the wine should peak by 1995.

Back upstairs, Small pulls the cork and decants the Cabernet. Currant and plum aromatics fill the room. The wine is not just alive and kicking, it’s stunning—polished and supple, with gorgeous fruit, delivering layers of loamy earth, licorice, cedar and toast.

Small helped establish Washington as a region worth a serious wine drinker’s attention. He and Darcey were among a small roster of pioneers who founded wineries there in the late 1970's and early 1980's, including Leonetti Cellar and Quilceda Creek Vintners. Though 600 more have planted their flags in the Evergreen State since then, wines from these trailblazers continue to make savvy collectors salivate.