Arbor Crest’s premium offerings
Arbor Crest Wine Cellars is launching a new premium wine label.
Winery manager Jim van Löben Sels says he and his wife, winemaker Kristina Mielke-van Löben Sels, will revive a family brand name first used by his great-uncle in 1969. Van Löben Sels Cellars began as a winemaking partnership in California, where van Loben Sels’ great-uncle was a vineyard manager. Five years later, the partnership dissolved.
“No one in the family ever picked it up,” van Löben Sels says. “We would love to carry on that tradition and also launch something from scratch.”
Then, the van Loben Sels label showcased the up-and-coming fruit of California, van Loben Sels says. Now, it will feature fine Washington grapes.
The wines will be limited-release, single-vineyard varietals designed for wine lovers who want to buy in the middle to high-end price range. There will be a limited production of the wines.
They’ll begin with three offerings from the Columbia Valley: a 2010 chardonnay from Connor Lee Vineyard ($30); a 2009 cabernet sauvignon made from Stillwater Creek Vineyards in Royal City, Wash. ($55); and the 2008 Bona Dea, a blend of primarily cabernet sauvignon, with some merlot and cabernet franc from the Connor Lee Vineyard ($65). Bona Dea was aged for 28 months in French oak.
Bona Dea represents the mother of Dionysus and is a play off the award-winning red blend by the same name bottled under the Arbor Crest Wine Cellars label. The Dionysus blend has won multiple awards, including a 93 point rating from wine guru Robert Parker.
Van Loben Sels says they are also excited about an unusual pinot noir planting that they’ll offer once the vines and fruit mature.
The wines will be available at the Cliff House tasting room, 4704 N. Fruithill Road, as well as online at www.vanlobenselswine.com. The van Loben Sels Cellars website is still under construction but eventually customers will be able to join the winery’s email list there. There is a Facebook page for the business with tasting notes on the wines.