Stephenson Cellars is a tiny winery located in the famous airport area of Walla Walla. If you blink you might miss it and that would be a shame. Dave Stephenson, owner and winemaker is one of the hardest working guys I have met. Hands stained with grape juice and shirt wet from sweat, Dave greets you with a warm smile and is ready to pour you a sample of some of his outstanding wine. He is very proud of his syrah as he should be but all of his wines rank in the outstanding category in my humble opinion. I was excited to try this new effort, a red blend with no vintage or appellation... simply a red wine. The back of the bottle has a cute little introduction..."This wine was produced, stared at, liberally sampled, blended, coddled, and eventually bottled by Stephenson Cellars LLC, Walla Walla..." I have to say I was impressed with this wine, which is no surprise. Very intense on the palate with dark berry tones, good acidity and serious but soft tannins. The wine hit you immediately with gorgeous fruit notes but never reached the point of too ripe even though it has a 14.1% alcohol level. The wine stayed intense through the mid-palate with a seamless flow into a very lasting finish. I love the balance of this wine and the fact that you feel like you are drinking an expensive bottle and yet you only spent twenty bucks. In this economy we could use more of these kind of wines. 90 points
(By the way, there is not a lot of this, so if you see it, snap it up)