Good Hand.

Don’t let the name deceive you. This bottle of wine from Washington is all good…

The Owen Roe folks are making some head-turning wines in the Pacific Northwest, more specifically Oregon and Washington state.

Owen Roe’s Sinister Hand is their Rhone style blend of Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre. According to the winery: “…On this label the family crest depiction of a severed left hand tells the story of a rowing competition among the ONeills & the OReillys (Owen Roe was an ONeill). Whoever touched land first after rowing across the lake was rewarded with the land he touched. Lagging behind, one of the kinsfolk grabs his sword to cleave his hand and pitches it ashore to touch land first. He won the land and eventually ruled over it as king.”

While I don’t know if I’d cleave my hand and throw it at the wine shelf to grab the last bottle, I have to admit this wine is pretty damn good. I was hesitant about the Grenache/Syrah mix (if you follow the blog you know that I’m wary of peppery-flavors in my wine), but it wasn’t much of an issue here, more on that in a second. The breakdown for the ‘07 Sinister Hand is 62% Grenache, 21% Syrah, 17% Mourvedre, and the grapes come from three areas of Washington state wine country: the Yakima Valley, Walla Walla Valley, and Horse Heaven Hills.

The wine was dark, (and dare I say, sinister?) on the pour. The nose revealed spices and some pepper (uh-oh), but as soon as the wine touched my tongue, the quality of the fruit showed itself.. fresh cherries, blackberries and currants bathed the inside of my mouth in a coat of velvet and smooth tannins-just a hint of the pepper was contained in the finish. Once again, the pepper works as long as the fruit is good enough to contain it and that was certainly the case here. Just a really, really good-drinking wine that was great all by itself, but that I would have no problem bringing to a barbecue or having with a nice piece of meat.

I’m told the Owen Roe Pinots and Syrahs are also fantastic. They’ve been added to my list…