The 2011 Merlot Cabernet Franc Conner Lee Vineyard (labeled simply “Conner Lee Vineyard”) is a blend of 67% Merlot and 33% Cabernet Franc that spent 15 months in one-third new French oak. Semi-opaque purple in color, it offers up an energetic profile with blackberry, tobacco, underbrush, pepper and floral nuances leading to a medium-bodied, elegant and deftly textured palate that has juicy acidity, good balance and a clean finish. Vibrant and perfumed, it is already approachable and delicious, yet should continue to impress for 7-8 years, possibly upwards of a decade. Drink now-2020. This estate is now run solely by Nina Buty Foster, with Chris Dowsett functioning as the winemaker. The wines lean heavily towards the elegant, borderline lean, end of the spectrum so those looking for overflowing richness need to look elsewhere. Nevertheless, they feature gorgeous purity of fruit, energetic textures and overall beautifully made profiles. Tel. (509) 527-0901; www.butywinery.com

Originating in the Conner Lee Vineyard – though not labeled as such – the Buty 2010 Merlot & Cabernet Franc delivers an alluring and fascinating combination of bittersweet floral perfume; marine breeze; and scents of fresh dark cherry and berries, all of which anticipate its billowing, juicy, and saliva-stimulating impression on a strikingly silken palate. The 42% Cabernet Franc here strikes me as getting more than equal billing. This finishes with real verve and next-sip inducement, and will probably prove versatile and delightful for at least the next three years. Buty is the project, begun in 2000, of Zelma Long protegee and veteran Washington winemaker Caleb Foster with his wife Nina Buty Foster. While their only public facility is located in Walla Walla and they recently bottled the first wine from their estate on the famously cobbled nearby soils of Milton-Freewater (a project on which Foster’s viticultural go-to guy, Phil Freese, consulted), most of their fruit is sourced from farther west, for red wine notably from the Beightol family’s impressive and manifestly impeccably-farmed Phinny Hill Vineyard whose slopes overlook the immediately adjacent and much more famous Champoux Vineyard that Dick Beightol helped plant and managed in its years as part of the surrounding Mercer Ranch. Foster, incidentally, reports very seldom adding tartaric acid to any of his musts, white or red; yet brightness and juiciness characterize most of the wines I tasted on my first visit with him. For reds – portions of which ferment in wooden uprights – he utilizes various means of extraction, including air-injection. Beast represents a parallel label to Buty (hence the prefacing of those wines descriptions with “Beast;” but reference to Buty does not appear on their labels.). Tel. (509) 527-0901

The 2009 Merlot (64%) – Cabernet Franc (36%) offers up a pleasing perfume of dried herbs and spices, incense, creme de cassis, and blackberry. This leads to a medium-bodied, savory, structured wine with excellent balance and length. It will benefit from 2-3 years of additional cellaring and drink well through 2023. Caleb Foster, the vigneron responsible for Buty, is on top of his game as these wines demonstrate. www.butywinery.com