Bac Nam spring rolls are great tasting as well

The restaurant's spring rolls were great tasting as well

Winery: Hedges Family Estate

Bottling: 2006 CMS White

Region: Washington

Sub-Region: Columbia Valley

Estimated Retail Price: $13

Purchase Details & Tasting Source: Purchased from Fujioka’s Wine Times retail store and consumed at our favorite Vietnamese restaurant, Bac Nam

Tasting Notes: As is always the case with wines from the Evergreen State, we rarely ever purchase them.  There’s no particular reason except our habitual nature to reach for Californian, French or Italian wines.  The Hedges Family Estate CMS White caught my attention because of the unfamiliar and somewhat medieval looking label.  Even more compelling was the blend of sauvignon blanc, chardonnay and rousanne from Washington state.  The price tag of twelve bucks was the final hook for me.

The wine had a nice golden looking color in the glass, no doubt brought about by the chardonnay.  The nose was very floral and aromatic.  In the mouth is where it got interesting.  Initially there was a lot of things going on at the same time.  There was quite an impact as far as weight and attack on the palate was concerned.  There was a lot of complexity very early in the process.  Usually for whites, I’d expect a big, fresh, fruit blast up front and mellower flavors as the wine opens up.  With this wine though, there were other things going on besides fruit.  You could taste the layers early on.  We were digging it.

Nice mix of high note and base note fruit flavors.  Fig, pineapple and pear and even some almond were the immediate flavors I remembered.  Fresh, but not searing acidity.  As the night wore on, the sauvignon blanc portion of the wine started to really show through with flavors of fresh cut grass.  We liked the wine a lot because each varietal showed its face separately, but each at some point in the night.  As the modern day cutting edge chef would say, “this wine is a deconstructed CMS Hedges White.”

Food Pairing & Context in Which to Enjoy: I think this wine didn’t have enough residual sugar or fruitiness to go with our Vietnamese dinner.  The pairing didn’t suck, but a little sweetness on the finish would’ve helped the wine and food pairing thing a little better.

Winery & Other Background Info: The winery also makes a Hedges red wine which we would definitely be interested in trying based on our expereince with the white.  The CMS line seems to be the entry level juice into the Hedges Family Estate portfolio.  They also make a line of premium estate red wines.  Here’s the link to their website for more information.