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Colombia Crest's Two Vines line provides oceans of wine for less than $10 a bottle
By Wes Marshall, Fri., Jan. 30, 2009
Columbia Crest Two Vines Wines
It's one thing to be able to lovingly coax just a few vines into making a nice bottle of wine for a few hundred dollars. At that price, a winemaker can make the entire procedure into a work of art. It takes a very different type of talent to be able to make oceans of less-than-$10-a-bottle (sometimes much less) wine every year, always winning both awards and the affection of several million wine lovers. Columbia Crest winemaker Ray Einberger falls into the latter crowd. With production running at about 2 million cases a year, Einberger is a busy guy.
These wines are consistently good, not just because of the winemaker but because of the growing climate. The area east of the Cascade Mountains in Washington state is desert dry with hot, sunny days and cool nights. In other words, ideal weather for wine grapes.
The new vintages will be hitting the shelves shortly, and there are two pieces of good news: The price of the Two Vines wines will stay under $10, and the wines are just as good as ever. The Merlot is always the big seller. Its popularity comes from generous blackberry aromas and fruity flavors along with just enough acidity to make it work with food or as an aperitif. But the real steal in the lineup is the 2004 Shiraz, a huge mouthful of wine that avoids the vanilla trap of too much oak by vinifying half of the wine in stainless steel. The result is a powerful wine just looking for a juicy hamburger.
Columbia Crest has 11 Two Vines wines: five reds, five whites, and a killer dry Rosé made from Syrah. They're available everywhere.
