You might wonder why Powers Winery always features so prominently in our catalogs.
It’s because I really like Powers. I like everything about them.
I like the people: father Bill Powers – recently inducted into Washington’s Wine Hall of fame; son Greg Powers – winemaker since 1990; and partner Mickey Dunne, who markets the wines with a rare honesty and class. I like the way they work: with a solar powered winery and running all their machinery on used cooking oil. But above all…I like their value (and their values).
Powers has made – and has been recognized as making – some of Washington’s finest wines (especially Cabernets) for decades. Yet they still charge prices that would have been more than fair during the Carter administration. Name another American winery - even one - that can say the same.
Take, for instance, the “Coyote” Cabernet Reserve. Britain’s Decanter Magazine just singled this out as one of “Washington’s Top Ten Cabernets or Blends.” It was the least expensive of the ten by far (at 26 pounds – or over $40; we sell it for $19.99) – but still rated near the top of the list.
Or the 2008 “Sheridan” Cabernet Reserve. Not only was this, at 94 points, Parker’s top American Cabernet at its price; the only other wine from this same old-vine Sheridan Cabernet fruit sold for $115. What’s more, the 94-point review came out before Powers priced the wine…and Powers still sold it for only $30.
Every one of these wines has huge press. (Except the 2008 “Champoux” luxury blend – the finest wine Powers has ever made – which was just too limited to show to critics.) But every one is still priced a level or two below anything at remotely its quality.
That’s the Powers way. And it has been since the very first Powers wine I sold – the 1992 “Mercer Ranch” Cabernet…from the vineyard Powers now partly owns, and has re-named “Champoux.”
There are a lot of over-priced American wines now being being dumped (especially by the “deal a day” sites) at what purport to be “bargain” prices. Powers shows the best-value wines are still those that at their normal prices have always been the best values.