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This wine was a surprise, as the 2006 Sorella was considered an example which couldn’t be bested by the 2008 vintage; how wrong that was. This wine most clearly shows the vintage as one which stays in the mind and lingers with its sophistication and controlled verve. All the fruit and other components of the wine are showing as one in this mysterious yet gratifying wine.
- Country: United States
- Region: Washington
- Subregion: Columbia Valley
Andrew Will Winery was started in 1989 and is owned by Chris Camarda. The winery was launched out of a love for wine that Chris developed while working in the restaurant trade for almost 20 years. Named after his son Will and nephew Andrew, Andrew Will has been a major contributor in putting Washington State on the map as a world-class wine-producing region.
Initially, the winery consisted of 900 square feet of rented industrial space in Seattle. In the early days, everything was done by hand from shoveling grapes into crushers, to labeling and delivering the wine. In 1994, the winery moved to Vashon Island, a short ferry ride from Seattle, where the present winery was built on 5 acres which also includes his home.
In the early years, Chris made single varietals of which his Merlots in particular, received critical acclaim. Robert Parker wrote that “no winery in America has made a series of Merlots as sumptious and delicious as these 1995’s.”
Yet, as Chris Camarda has developed his style of winemaking over the years, he has chosen to focus on the primacy of the vineyard over variety. It is now the driving force behind Andrew Will. While the idea of terroir has become almost a hollow marketing tool, it has great attraction for Chris in its purest form. “I believe that an individual piece of property can form a signature - an identity - and it is that face that is the focus of my winemaking. We are trying to let the vineyards reveal themselves,” he says. “I believe that if Washington is ever to be considered a great wine region we need to establish the characteristics of our geographical areas and the characteristics of each vineyard in those areas,” he adds.
Andrew Will has no plans to increase output beyond 4800 cases but instead to focus on the vineyards and the care needed to produce the kind of fruit to satisfy the Andrew Will ideals. In the words of one wine critic, “he remains among the real stars of Washington.”
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