2013 Matthews Estate Claret Columbia Valley 750 ml

From Silver Oak to Stags Leap: 92-94pt Matthews Claret at 63rd and Broadway

When Wine Enthusiast named Michael Madrigale the #1 Sommelier in America, many in Manhattan wondered what took the magazine so long. A half-dozen years ago, Daniel Boulud discovered the acuity of Madrigale’s palate and lured Michael to Bar Boulud. The lists at Bar Boulud and Boulud Sud would eventually balloon to over 500 selections, each hand-selected by Madrigale.

Given Michael’s classically trained palate and Boulud’s roots, at 63rd and Broadway New World wines take a back seat to their Old World counterparts. So, after ordering Daniel’s 16-ounce roasted lamb T-Bone, we flipped pages to the Bordeaux section, looking for a ripe vintage from the Left Bank.

Then we did one better. We asked our waiter if Madrigale was in the house.

Michael greeted us warmly, squeezed in a little shop talk, and then cut to the chase. “How are we preparing the T-Bone, guys? Rare?” We nodded. “I agree on the choice of Bordeaux varieties, but if you don’t mind, I’m going to steer you away from the Left Bank. I’m going to give you something bigger and darker. Something sturdy, with dusty tannins that can cut the fats of the T-Bone.”

Michael winked and flashed that million-dollar smile. “I’ll be right back.” Poof. Madrigale was gone, racing down the front stairs to Daniel Boulud’s cellar.

Just a few minutes later, the #1 sommelier in the country returned, a bottle of 2013 Matthews Claret in hand. As he uncorked The Wine Advocate’s highest-rated under-$30 Bordeaux blend of the phenomenal 2013 vintage, he told us why, on a Bar Boulud wine list of 500 selections, just two reds were made in the state of Washington — both by the ingenious Aryn Morell!

In 1999, as Michael Madrigale was packing his bags for his first trip to Nuits-Saint-Georges, where he would work the harvest at Domaine de l’Arlot, Aryn Morell was passing up a graduate school program in Chemical Engineering, opting instead for a cellar job at Silver Oak.

Six years later, in a move that Aryn claims really shaped his approach to the making of world-class Cabernet Sauvignon, he was recruited by one of the top consultancies in the valley, providing him with an insider’s look at the winegrowing practices at Stag’s Leap, Phelps, Quintessa, Chappellet, and Vineyard 29. When Morell returned to Washington to become head winemaker at Matthews, he arrived with a detailed Napa Valley playbook for the making of Red Mountain and Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.

“When Morell came back to Washington, he realized that the Pacific Northwest was 20 years behind Napa,” Madrigale told us. “The Cabernet Sauvignon was being picked before the fruit was physiologically ripe. Part of the problem was viticultural. Part was economic. Most wineries in Washington purchased their fruit from large growers instead of growing their own. As a result, interests were misaligned. The growers wanted high yields. The wineries wanted ripe fruit, but weren’t in a position to pay for it. Aryn told the people at Matthews that if they wanted to compete with Stags Leap, their vineyards would have to be farmed like Stags Leap. They’d have to bite the bullet. Pay by the acre, not by the ton. A tough pill to swallow.”

The 2013 Matthews Claret is dark purple to the edge. Intense, wild-berry aromas of cassis, dark plum, tobacco, and sweet herbs, framed by plenty of new-wood cedar. Richly concentrated, bold, and polished, with a distinctly Napa-like core of crushed blackberry preserves, black cherry, violets, graphite, and black licorice. As Madrigale promised, finishing with terrific sappy tannins that cut the fats in Chef Boulud’s T-Bone like a knife. Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate suggests an optimal drinking window of 2025-2035!! We see no reason to disagree.

$40 on release. This may well be the finest and most sophisticated under-$30 Proprietary Red EVER offered on WineAccess for just $29/bottle. 100 cases are up for grabs. NOT TO BE MISSED.