Fun-damental Wines: Charles Smith

         I'm a sucker for trinkets.  I'm not sure if it comes from my father's quirky desire to make sure I had a genuinely unique upbringing, or if it comes from some inherent desire to view every experience from some skewed angle; like knowing that there is in fact a box and somehow forgetting wherein I'm supposed to think and completely not caring.  As soon as we got a cargo-top for taking my seven member family across state, my father found a fake arm and bolted it out the front clasp.  There it was, in all its prosthetic glory, flapping across the east coast.  People waved, some honked, others still thought this grim prank was just flat out inappropriate.  I, however, remember every stop, ever bypass, every monument and every scenic detour.  Why?  Because every time I was reminded that my father had somehow done something bizarre, totally in the spirit of fun, I saw a side of the coveted 'American Tradition' that did not need to be a stale, 'monochromatic' staple of what has inherently become a Hallmark dynamic.   Was our family vacation less valuable?  I'd make the counter argument that my family vacation was actually better than yours(and your honor students).  I'm kidding, but I do think that the effort and earnest approach my father took in sculpting my formative youth made it both strange and incredibly amazing.  

Why am I telling you this?  Because I think there is a breed of wine maker, one who takes something so cherished as 'Fine Wine' and has fun with it.  It's not a fake arm, but the gimic is still there, calling attention to both critics and workaday wine drinkers.  I started this article wanting to expound on several winemakers, snippets of information on a few men and women who take the stuffiness out of what has become a moth-ball like mentality to somehow elder'ing the hobby of wine appreciation.  However, as I started researching a few key people, I realized that this would in fact become an installment series; like pieces of a jagged puzzle, to understand any of these characters I would have to start from the edges and work my way in.  

What do you get when you cross Van Halen(or Van Hagar?)'s front man Sammy Hagar with the venerable genius of any Rhone Master Winesmith?  You get the mad hatter of Washington State; Charles Smith.  A former Scandinavian Band Manager, Smith is to wine in most cases as to David Lynch is to modern cinema.  Wildly colorful, mysterious and at times a little gothic(check the label on The Creator), his style is both bombastic and incredibly supple in one fell swoop.  Insert also comparisons to Bjork, Mickey Rourke and perhaps even Egon Shiele.  

Setting up shop in the Blue Mountains of Walla Walla, Washington, his K Vintners Winery is gaining press like wildfire, quickly earning it's place as one of(if not the best) places to find Washington State Wines.  Beyond that, and in this authors opinion, it may just produce one of the finest Syrah/Cabernet Sauvignon Blends in the World.  The 'Roma' is a 68% Cabernet/32% Syrah Blend that boasts incredibly dark, brooding black fruit.  Marrying the thick, jam-like berries is a twist of camel leather that laces dark, cigar smoke and a lush fortified currant apertif flavor on the finish.  It ROCKS.  He made the 'Roma' for his mother, it's big brother the 'Ovide'(pronounced Oh-veed) for his father, Robert.  Ovide is much more of a sensual sipping wine.  Firm and bold, the dark cassis smear the pallette with grippy fruit.  A mellow undertone of olive tapenade sits just above spicy, almost sweet tobacco.  The finish is long but not overly lacquered, painting instead the picture of mocha and herbal spices.  It's a cellar wine if you can wait that long.  His 'Cougar Hills' Syrah is my favorite straight Syrah that he makes, owing most of my passion for a dense, mixed currant mid-pallette against the finishing's of a fine Chocolate Checker Pie(if you don't have a southern family, find one, best pie ever).  It's great, and it doesn't kill your budget.  

It's not just WHAT he makes that makes Charles so unique.  He's never stuffy, he's always consistent and he markets himself in a way that makes you feel as though you already know him.  His 'Kung Fu Girl' Riesling states, "Why Kung Fu Girl? Because Riesling and Girls kick ass!"(A quote from the website).  Why?  Because it's an affordable Riesling that wreaks of Asian pear and honeysuckle.  It's floral bouquet is 100% fresh cut lilac and violets, and the acidity is about as balanced as the Olsen Twins on a 'see-saw'.  It's good.  

I find that in an industry that prides itself on 'Pomp and Circumstance' that we forget what exactly circumstance means.  In what circumstance do we buy wines?  Well, if you're like this author, all of them.  If I want a K Vintners wine, I have a huge catalogue to try from, and yet all of them are both entertaining and delicious.  Sure, I'll spend the $70 on 'El Jefe'(Smith's Tempranillo/Cabernet Sauvignon Blend), and I'll definitely please my oenophile friends; but what about if I want to pop in and buy a $20 dollar easy pleaser?  Look to both his Steak House Red and his Chateau Smith; both are beautifully solid and robust, splashing the tongue with rich hues of dark fruits and tangible minerality.  

The basic, classic black and white labeling only add to his kitsch appeal, hinging your wild expectation's of his wild style against the consistent quality of his product.  I saw an interview with him wearing a black and white Nirvana shirt, and I got the warm sensation of youthful joy.  I realize that I am only a few years more than a quarter-century old, but if people can get beyond the pomp that shackles our expectations from our overall possibilities maybe people would start to take myself and Smith more seriously.  

             As for his wine, it's seriously great, seriously.

                Cameron