Rock Creek Cellars Red Wine 07

Rock Creek is a second label for Michael Beckley, known for his Quercus Wines.

Rock Creek Cellars Red Wine 07 is made from two-thirds Merlot and one-third Cab. Big and friendly, with jammy red plums and cherries all over. It's a mouthfilling fruit bomb in the best of ways, great for pizza, spaghetti, or anything else you might have on a Tuesday night. No new oak was used, and the fruit was sourced from Columbia Valley Vineyards, near the Dalles.

Rock Creek is a second label for Michael Beckley, known for his Quercus Wines.

When he founded Quercus Wines (aptly named for the oak genus used to make wine barrels), Berkley determined he would run it as closely as he could to how a small Burgundian producer operates, "without," he added, "the family involvement." Quercus is a one-man band.

"I try to emulate the hands-off technique from Burgundy, gently herding the wine to its final destination," said Beckley. "I don't have any delusions that Oregon is Burgundy-it is still Oregon, with its own unique grape-growing atmosphere.

"But the [winemaking] techniques are interchangeable," he added. "They generally mimic what has been done in Burgundy for hundreds of years." An analogy Beckley might draw is to the way a jazz standard is played differently each time it's approached by a new musician. The song is the same, and there are traditional methods with which to play it; the interpretation is unique.

Beckley believes that, in winemaking, some traditional methods are marks of integrity, and that, "many dedicated, small producers of all kinds of reds will use these techniques now."