(“Which Was to Be Demonstrated”, or QED to us)

It’s easy to become jaded in the wine world. Over the course of time and once you’ve had a number of very fine wines, it kind of puts thing in perspective about who really is who. As a consequence, it becomes ever more difficult to get fired up about yet another new winery, label or release. And even in this highly questionable economy, it’s a miracle that there are any new wineries coming online. I’m not joking.

So, as if like Manu, into the wine world waltzes this really cool dude that really knows what he’s doing. I’m not joking. At a wine tasting, winemaker Billo Naravane with Rasa Vineyards introduced his first vintage. The wine: QED, and you’re going to want to hunt this down and beat up your retailer to beat up their distributor to get this excellent wine into your cellar. And then into your mouth.

Mark Patterson whom I am fortunate to know, is an extremely knowledgeable wine collector friend and had been in on QED barrel tastings for some time. As usual Mark was right - the wine itself gives to you everything you could ask for in a Syrah: a beautiful, evolving and intriguing nose, dark fruit and long a pure finish that expresses the quality of fine Walla Walla Syrahs like Cayuse, and K. Balance, elegance, and a sense of place are the first things that come to mind when first putting my nose and palate to the glass.

The 2007 QED (only 640 cases to go around for the entire world) is wonderfully drinkable right now and will develop even more complexity with bottle age for at least eight to ten years. A Southern Rhone-type blend, this beauty contains 94% Syrah, 3% Grenache and 3% Mourvedre from Les Collines in Walla Walla, and Seven Hills and Lewis vineyards in Yakima, which is certainly some of Washington State’s finest.

Every wine it seems has its story. And because every new winemaker only has one chance to impress in this very cluttered market, the story must be as good as, or better than, the wine itself. Typically the hype is weaved together carefully by a great publicist or veteran journalist or a crew of professional spin-master marketers. The story of QED is better than what anyone could contrive: an overachiever from a young age, Billo created his academic mark by first majoring in Applied Math and Computer Science at MIT and his EE degree came from Stanford. After fifteen years he chucked it all and walked out of UC Davis with his Masters in Viticulture and Enology. If there ever was a better story, I haven’t heard it, partially because this one is true. In addition to making great wine worthy of your attention, Billo also is running the Viticulture program at Walla Walla Community College, sharing his genius with others. Billo’s brother Pinto is pretty much the same thing; an overachiever from the high tech industry with a passion for making great wine.

But what really struck me apart from this awesome Syrah was that Billo’s approach toward making wine is what is going to put him on the map in this over-processed, big-human-intervention, technology-driven, homogenized world of winemaking. To state it plainly, Billo is a purist. Just great wine that will always be honest, and expressive of its terroir and vintage, “Which Was to Be Demonstrated” and certainly was demonstrated.

There is nothing else to ask for other than being able to find a source to buy this very limited quantity of fine wine – in my world, it's exactly why Goggle was invented!

David Boyer