Passport Review By Greg Wacks

Greg Wacks is a seasoned TV Producer in New York (having spent over a decade at VHI), a Certified Sommelier and a Director at the Organic Wine Journal. An excerpt from his site reads, “Shooting in the everglades with the former lead singer of Skid Row, watching him almost lose his leg to a hungry alligator was when I realized my talent really does trust me.”

He recently tried our Passport for the first time and this was his response:

“Lately, all anyone wants to talk about when drinking a glass of wine is “Terroir.”  You’ll hear people in wine bars, restaurants, retail stores and all over the blog world talking about it but really, does anyone truly know what it means?  At it’s core, it’s a word that comes to represent the place where a certain wine is made.  When people speak of a wine having “wonderful terroir” it generally means that the wine is a great representation of the place where it came from.  From a highly acidic German Reisling with great minerality and richness to a full throttle Aussie fruit and oak bomb, it’s a wonderful thing when you open a bottle and immediately sense where it came from.

When I recently opened the 2006 Passport from Senoj Estates, I thought for sure I had stumbled upon an impostor of a wine with no real sense of terroir.  From the deep ruby color in the glass to the notes of oak, menthol, and heat on the nose, I was convinced that this jumble of flavors would be neither here nor there.  Even reading the label I noted that the wine has “roots in Bordeaux” but is made from Washington State fruit.  After the first sip, I was thrilled to be proven wrong.

The Passport was not only indicative of true Washington State terroir, it proved to me again that Washington is churning out some of the most exciting wines in the US right now.  While the firm tannic structure and well-balanced fruit reminded me of a handful of left bank Bordeaux wines, the wonderful acidity and copious amounts of oak made me realize that I was drinking something that came from a northern growing region in a country that pioneered the use of oak as a means of expressing the phrase “UMPH” in a glass.

Be warned, however, this wine is not for the faint of heart.  It is a very big and bold expression of terroir and can stand up to just about any food that attempts to cross it’s path.  In short, it’s a winter wine that will be well served with a hearty stew or big cut of meat.

While the Passport may take you to Bordeaux and back, I’d be perfectly happy never leaving my house, knowing that a few bottles of this juice are laying down in my wine fridge.”

Thanks Greg for sharing your thoughts!