It's Nick, and a bottle of Pend d'Oreille Cabernet!

After a long day of work toiling in the coal mines today, Rick and I got in the Japanese Carmobile to come home. Upon arriving at Chateau de Drunko (our house), we found a vagrant and vagabond sitting on our coach smoking a cigar and holding a bottle in a paper bag. None of that, we said, as we pushed his shopping cart aside and realized it was actually Nick, a friend from Pullman! What a nice surprise! Oh yea, we forgot that the told us he was coming and in fact, we told him where the key was approximately 15 minutes earlier. There was no cigar, either.

To celebrate this monumental occasion of having a special friend from Eastern Washington in our humble abode, we decided to crack open a bottle of wine we knew would be good and we had been wanting to review for some time. Nick is NorCal boy, straight from the streets of Napa or Napcompton as we call it here in the hood. All joking aside, we decided to open a sweet bottle of wine and get Nick's perspective with his California palate.

Sitting on the rack was a bottle of 2006 Pend d'Oreille Cabernet Sauvignon. This bottle, from the Terrior Series, is from Mike Berghan's vineyard in the Walla Walla River area of Washington. Bottled in Sandpoint, Idaho, we've loved literally everything that we have tried from Pend d'Oreille so were very excited that they sent us this bottle.

[pause for an interlude....well the interlude is actually me spilling half a bottle of wine on the wall and floor while writing this post. Don't tell the landlord.]

We cracked open the bottle, and poured [another] glass. Here's Nick's assessment:

Upon smelling this wine, I really have...I...have to admit that my nose is the weakest of my five senses. I don't know how to describe it, but it tastes good. A bit of an aftertaste that makes me pause, building in joy as it dissipates off of the palate. The best part is the middle.

Rick spruced up his palate and shared his perspective:

I smell a bit of spice with currants, and cranberry or pomegranate. The flavor is not as prominent as the nose, with a melding of fruit flavors deconstructing with spice on the finish. Solid Cabernet Sauvignon, reminding me more of a Southern Oregon wine as it's a bit tamer than many Walla Walla cabs.

All in all, another winner from Pend d'Oreille. They put out great stuff. This tastes like a little lower heat Cab and is very drinkable.

Again, let us emphasize, we've never had a wine from PO that we haven't enjoyed.  I can't wait to check out the winery in November.  If you get a chance, try their stuff.