Grand Harvest Awards; What's it all about?

Recently Harbinger’s 2009 Bolero, a 75% Tempranillo blend and the 2010 Barbera were awarded medals at the Grand Harvest Awards 2013. Wineries from all over the North Americas enter this competition from Canada to New York to New Mexico and the top 2 wine-producing states: California and Washington. This particular competition focuses on “terroir”. 

So what is terroir and why is it so important? Terroir, the French word for land, can be described as characteristics from a certain area that interact with plant genetics giving you a “sense of the land”. Wherever the grapes are grown, the geography, geology and climate give a unique quality to the grapes. So no matter what, it is impossible to reproduce the same wine flavor. Grand Harvest Awards lets the wine tell the history of the area from which it came and judges based on which wines stay true to its history. 

At Harbinger, we get our Tempranillo grapes from the Rattlesnake Hills area which has loamy soil, lots of slopes, meaning great drainage,  average rainfall of 6-9”, and a long growing season.  We get our Barbera from the Columbia Valley AVA which is the largest wine region in the state and it is broken down into several smaller AVA’s including Rattlesnake Hills. The Columbia Valley has many microclimates but the whole region is known for having cold winters and long dry summers with low humidity. All of these attributes affect how the grapes will taste. How? Well, you’ll just have to try our Gold-winning Barbera and Silver-winning Bolero for yourself.

Here’s a good example: In 2012 there were huge forest fires over in Eastern Washington, where food and grapes for wine-making are grown. Now that 2012 wines are coming out onto the market, spectators have been saying these 2012 vintage wines are displaying a particularly smokey flavor as compared to other years. Those forest fires affected the flavor of the grapes, therefore the wine which the grapes made and that’s just one of the thousands of factors that influences terroir.

For the whole list of wineries that won awards visit this website
https://www.enofileonline.com/compawards.aspx?compID=91

Until Next Year!

Red Wine & Chocolate 2014 is over and we had a wonderful turnout and shared heaps of gooey memories with folks. This year Harbinger Winery brought back the Kitty Kat lounge, and what happens in the Kitty Kat Lounge stays behind the velvet curtains! But we can tell you we didn’t see one person leave without a grin on their face; a true sign of satisfaction! The first weekend, it was mighty cold outside but we warmed each other’s hearts with friendly smiles, sublime wines, and charming chocolates. The second weekend it rained cats and dogs but it was nonstop busy all day. We got to meet a lot of new faces as well as old friends too (just the way we like it). 
New wines and old standbys were served for the event, each paired with a specific chocolate treat. From the potato chip haystacks to the chocolate rockets each pairing was a flavor explosion! We had dark chocolate cups filled with smoky gooey caramel, piles of salty sweet and crunchy delights, and flavors one would never expect to pair with wine and chocolate…like buttered popcorn mixed with milk chocolate and pop rocks …who knew? 
The Raspberry Bliss, which was just released for the Red Wine & Chocolate tour, went swimmingly with the Bleu Cheese Brownie! Say what? That’s what we’re here for folks; to push the boundaries of your comfortable life and make you put things in your mouth you’ve never considered! 





Not only do these events bring out a lot of people to the Olympic Peninsula but they give everyone a chance to really see how pairing a certain food with a particular wine can magically elevate the flavor and “mouthfeel” of both. It’s a great opportunity to experience how pairing the right food with the right wine really helps you savor the flavor. The next big wine tour is May 4th & 5th, the Northwest Wine & Cheese Tour. We can’t wait to blow your mind with some amazing and unusual wine and cheese pairings!
But for now, here are some pictures of the fun times had during Red Wine & Chocolate: