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Ratings Page
2005 vintages- You can look at the winemaker notes here and see some
tasting notes done by third party wine connoisseurs.
Wine Spectator rates all 90+;
Seattle
Times rates 2005 Cab Sauvignon #19 in Top 100 of Washington State wines of 2007.
2005 Vintages
2004 Vintages:
2003 Vintages
2002 Cabernet Sauvignon
2002 Merlot
2002 Syrah
2001 RiverBend Red
2000 Red Table Wine
2001 Merlot
2000 Merlot
2001 Cabernet Sauvignon
2000 Cabernet Sauvignon
Washington CEO magazine rates Washington State
wines in their April 2008 edition.
See page 56
here.
2005 Vintages:
Wine Spectator
Wine Enthusiast (will be in the May 2008 edition)
93 Editors Choice Fielding Hills 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon
93
Editors Choice
Fielding Hills
2005 Merlot
92
Fielding Hills
2005
Syrah
91
Fielding Hills
2005
Riverbend Red
89
Fielding Hills
2005
Cabernet Franc
Paul Gregutt Blog 4/20/08... very nice comments as he rates verticals of our Cab and Merlot
2004 Vintages:
Perhaps our best showing ever in a blind tasting were the
results in the Seattle Wine Awards 2007 Grand Awards of Excellence. Our
2004 Merlot, Syrah, and RiverBend Red all earned Gold Medals. You can
click here to see the page of the summary
of the awards. I highlighted our Gold medals in yellow. An extraordinary
lineup of judges, and over 450 wines submitted. We were very pleased to
recieve 3 golds. You can also go to www.seattlewineawards.com
for more information. The press release for these awards went out at the
end of May. We are surprise there has been so little press!
March 2007 edition of Wine Enthusiast features Fielding Hills
2004 Merlot in their cover story article about the top 45 Merlots of the world!
This article includes an amazing picture of several bottles of wine, with ours
front and center! What fun.
February 2007 Wine Spectator edition has the
following ratings:
FHW 2004 Cab Sav ranks #3 in Seattle Times top 100 Washington State wines of 2006. Click Here for article.
95 points CABERNET SAUVIGNON
Dark, tannic and smoky, this has more tobacco flavor than the other two reds in
this series. Muscular, dense and
tight, it offers cassis, raspberry and sappy, delicious red fruits.
This is very young, very tight, but already nuanced with extraordinary
notes of leaf and clean herb. It’ll
be interesting to see where it goes in 5 – 10 years.
P.G.
93 points RIVERBEND RED
Great color, plush aromas and mouth feel. It
sets up in the mouth with intense, varied flavors including blackberry, black
cherry, black licorice and more. The
young berry fruit scents are sensational, wrapped tight, and the oak is gently
applied (76% new) and lends a pleasing milk chocolate smoothness to the finish.
Keeps its focus thanks to acrobatic balance and simply beautiful fruit.
Ripe, tangy berries, consistent with the house style- a tight spine of firm
tannin and bright acid. There's a
good meaty quality in the midpalate and plenty of vanilla.
I think there is a lot of compact flavor in hiding, right now its showing
a lot of spice (from the 12% syrah blended in?) and vanilla (from the barrel).
P.G.
This is classic Washington Syrah, the nose explodes the glass, and it has all
the marks of what makes
This is a lighter, more approachable than the other Fielding reds, with
strawberry and cherry fruit and good acidity.
Though it does not quite carry the weight of the others, it has wonderful
balance, and it is perhaps the most approachable of the new releases, drinking
beautifully, with a satiny smooth finish that slides across the palate.
Absolutely seamless and poised. P.G.
11/29/06 Wine Spectator Online Edition:
Fielding
Hills
Syrah Wahluke Slope 2004
93 points | $32 | 176 cases made | Red
Fielding Hills, a modestly sized winery on the remote
Wahluke Slope of
wines like this. A blast of black cherry and
roasted game bird flavors wrap themselves in a warm
almost cuddly as it
lingers effortlessly. Drink now
through 2014. – H.S
(From the Seattle Times 10/18/06 Wine Advisor, Paul Gregutt) Fielding
Hills 2004 RiverBend Red; $28. How to pick one, when all of the new
Fielding Hills releases are so beautifully crafted? Try this red blend; it has
great color, plush aromas and mouthfeel and sets up in the mouth with intense,
varied flavors including blackberry, black cherry, black licorice. The young
berry fruit scents are sensational, wrapped tight and the oak is gently applied
and lends a pleasing milk-chocolate smoothness to the finish. Acrobatic balance
and gorgeous fruit.
Ratings
from soon to be released Wine Enthusiast Magazine "Best of the Year
Edition" to go on sale December 2006:
95
Fielding Hills 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon Wahluke Slope $30
94 Fielding Hills 2004 Syrah Columbia Valley (WA) $32
94 Fielding Hills 2004 Merlot Wahluke Slope $32
93 Fielding Hills 2004 RiverBend Red Blend Wahluke Slope $28
91 Fielding Hills 2004 Cabernet Franc Wahluke Slope $28
2003 Vintages
Washington CEO magazine (February 2007 edition) has article on "Wine Speaks the Language of Love", by Christina Kelly. She writes about our 2003 Syrah and says: "A classic Washington state syrah with big aromas, spice, smoke, blackberry, and cherry flavors. Perfect for a sensual evening." To see the full article click HERE.
WINE ENTHUSIAST
MAGAZINE
Dear Mike,
Congratulations! The following wine has been selected as one of
Wine Enthusiast Magazine Top 100 Wines for 2005.
Wine Enthusiast will be publishing the ranking, rating and review in our Best of
Year Issue in the "Top 100" section, in the front of the book.
This issue is on-sale December 9.
Rank:
#99 Editors Choice 95
Fielding Hills 2003 Merlot Columbia Valley (WA) $28.00
Click here for the link to the entire list of 100... be sure to check out #99!
Fielding Hills 2003 Cabernet Franc; $26. Loaded with currant, cherry, cinnamon, chalk, earth, tobacco, graphite, butter, toast smoke, coffee.
Top Ten list from Paul Gregutt's 10/30/05 article in Seattle Times- (complete article here)
Fielding Hills 2003 Merlot; $28. A brilliant effort from this emerging superstar winery. The vibrant fruit is polished to a fine luster with perfectly applied oak "seasoning" that adds toast, butter, coconut, cedar and smoke, lifted with scents of tobacco, citrus and leaf.
All In The Family:
Fielding Hills at Waterfront Seafood Grill (Seattle Times 10/30/2005) Complete article is here
Fielding Hills Winery, located in the Wenatchee area, makes about 800 cases a year of red wines from grapes grown at their RiverBend Vineyards in Mattawa. Owners Mike and Karen Wade are primarily apple and cherry growers. Karen, who manages the marketing while Mike handles the vineyard and winemaking, modestly calls the winery "a small, glorified hobby."
Nonetheless, their first few vintages have impressed a number of critics, myself included, with their balance, clarity, definition and complexity. The Wades release all the wines at the same time. When the first group was ready to be introduced, in the summer of 2002, they decided, Karen explains, to have a dinner. "We actually had wine in the bottle, and it was drinkable! We wanted to celebrate getting 'on the map,' so to speak."
The annual dinner has become so successful that this year, for the first time, they hosted a second event in Seattle. The menu planning is straightforward; "Mike," says Karen, "likes things smart yet simple." Fruit and cheese with a bit of bubbly for the reception/welcome; a salad course with the merlot (Mike likes iceberg lettuce); a palate-cleansing sorbet (a family tradition); a beef course with the two main reds; and a dessert, preferably chocolate, to accompany the two newest wines, a syrah and a cabernet franc.
Waterfront was chosen as the Seattle venue because, says Karen, it is the only restaurant in town carrying Fielding Hills on its wine list. Though it's not one of the wine dinners initiated by the restaurant, it fits the same general mold, and offers its guests the pleasures of tasting new, hard-to-find wines, served in a classy, comfortable yet informal atmosphere, with the owners and winemakers right at hand.
Unlike a large tasting event, such as Taste Washington, these casual dinners provide an extended opportunity to meet and talk with winery owners, who eagerly want every guest to feel like a close friend, not a customer. "Sometimes during the menu planning the chef just rolls his eyes," says Karen, "but for us it's more about celebrating the release of the vintage than a true gourmet pairing of the food and the wine." Gourmet you can find in many places, but a genuine welcome and a chance to dine like a member of the family, well, that's special.
From Paul Gregutt's article in the October 5, 2005 edition of
the Seattle Times: (see full article HERE)
Fielding Hills
This
red-wine specialist has just released its fourth vintage, and as I tasted
through these five wines I completely ran out of superlatives. I don't believe I
have ever given such rave reviews to an entire lineup of wines from a young
winery. A good place to start is with the 2003 Merlot ($28), a brilliant,
polished, beautifully nuanced wine that may be as good as any
The
winery's cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, syrah and RiverBend red releases
(all $26-$30) follow suit; spectacular wines. The RiverBend vineyard fruit plays
a big part in their success, but owner/winemaker Mike Wade is equally important.
He has a natural gift for crafting elegant, expressive wines.
The editors at Wine Enthusiast have rated and reviewed the following wines and will be in the buying guide of the December 15th issue: 95 Editors Choice Fielding Hills 2003 Merlot Columbia Valley (WA) $28 94 Editors Choice Fielding Hills 2003 Cabernet Franc Columbia Valley (WA) $26 94 Editors Choice Fielding Hills 2003 Syrah Columbia Valley (WA) $32 93 Editors Choice Fielding Hills 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon Columbia Valley (WA) $30 93 Editors Choice Fielding Hills 2003 RiverBend Red Red Blend Columbia Valley (WA) $28
