This iconic Yakima Valley winery continues to improve. This excellent, roughly half-and-half blend of cabernet and merlot is in its value tier. Alcohol is under 14 percent, aromas are rich with blackberries, black currants and black olives; and you’ll pick up a touch of licorice and herb in the mouth. (Young’s-Columbia distributes)Arbor Crest makes a solid comeback.

Only a small number of Washington wineries have passed the quarter-century mark  — not a long history by Old World standards, but highly significant in this competitive industry. For those too young to remember, there were barely three dozen wineries in the state in 1982, the year Arbor Crest was founded, and many of them have disappeared. In the Spokane area, only Latah Creek dates back almost as far.

Arbor Crest was founded by the Mielke brothers, David and Harold. The family business was orchards and fruit. David had begun growing grapes in the Wahluke Slope; Harold was working as a medical researcher in the Bay Area. They hired Scott Harris (from California’s Davis Bynum winery) to be their winemaker and focused production on white wines, highlighted by a fruity, French-oak-aged, slightly sweet sauvignon blanc.

Within a few years Arbor Crest had grown to become one of Washington’s largest wineries. But by the time Harold’s daughter, Kristina, and her husband, Jim, decided to move to Spokane and take over, the winery had lost its focus. That was 1999. Today, winemaker Kristina Mielke van Loben Sels has just completed her 10th Washington harvest. She studied fermentation science at UC Davis and worked as enologist/assistant winemaker at Ferrari-Carano. The move north came suddenly, and not without challenges. To put it bluntly, it has taken a decade for the brand to recover. But as the excellent lineup of new releases shows, Arbor Crest is again at the top of its game.

The flagship white wine is still the sauvignon blanc ($10), with fruit sourced from Bacchus vineyard vines more than 35 years old. It’s stainless-steel-fermented, with just 13 percent alcohol allowing some of the more subtle varietal flavors (melon, green apple, lime and grapefruit) to shine.

If you love a big, buttery style of chardonnay, Arbor Crest’s 2006 Conner Lee vineyard bottling ($18) is right up your alley. The ripe fruit is supported with firm acids and a dollop of vanilla cream.

The current crop of red wines is the best overall in the winery’s history. One caveat: The distributor (Odom) appears to be backed up with older vintages. The vintages quoted here are the ones to seek, and you can always order direct from the winery.

The Arbor Crest 2006 Merlot ($15) opens with an interesting floral note, followed with bright raspberry and light chocolate flavors. It’s 100 percent varietal. As are most Arbor Crest wines, the 2006 Syrah ($20) is also 100 percent varietal. This one is sappy and brimming with berry flavors. The ripe fruit is set against firm acids, then finished with caramel and butterscotch flavors from judicious aging in new French-oak barrels.

Kristina van Loben Sels says the cabernet sauvignon sourced from the Klipsun vineyard on Red Mountain is destined for a new van Loben Sels label. For the moment, though, it is part of the regular lineup. The 2005 version ($35) captures the essence of the vineyard’s strengths: black cherry and cassis; tar, gravel and smoke; chewy, earthy tannins.

The winery’s top red is the 2005 Dionysus ($45), a Bordeaux blend given extended barrel age. The current vintage includes all five Bordeaux grapes for the first time. Dark, sappy and bursting with ripe cassis and black cherry fruit, silky tannins and juicy acids, this lovely bottle is ready for additional cellaring.

The winery’s Web site (www.arborcrest.com) lists a number of limited-edition wines as well. Cliff House, home to the Arbor Crest tasting room and gift shop, is open from noon to 5 p.m. daily.

JUST A FEW WEEKS ago, I came across a startling offer. A young Burgundy was being advertised for the jaw-dropping price of $8,500. Granted, this was the Romanée Conti from the Domaine Romanée Conti — by general acclaim the greatest Burgundy in the world. To acquire a single bottle, you often must purchase a mixed case of DRC wines (recent case price online was $55,288); the limited opportunities to do so are doled out to gravy-train riders around the globe.

In this instance the vintage happened to be 2005, which the punditerati have declared the vintage of the century (out of six so far). Still, the price seemed incredible. So I trotted down to a local retailer to confirm what I had read. Could any standard 750 ml-size bottle of young wine possibly be sold at such a price in these distressed times? Oh, yes, my retailer friend assured me. In fact, he said, he’d sold the same wine a few months ago for considerably more than $8,500. And even that was considered a bargain, because the wine had gone at auction for more than $15,000 a bottle — plus buyer’s commission, of course.

I report this cautionary tale not to discourage you from grubbing up every bottle of bargain DRC you can find, but more in the spirit of misery loves company. We’re all looking for wine bargains, and even the mightiest prices have fallen!

Many perfectly fine Washington wines are gathering dust on shelves and in warehouses because consumers consider the price too high. Winemakers are rarely trying to gouge anyone; most little boutiques are simply scraping by. The wine cost this much to make, the argument goes, and to keep the business afloat it must sell for a bit more. My response is always the same. Yes, but . . . The consumer doesn’t care what your costs are. The consumer looks around at all the wines and buys the one that appears to offer comparable quality for less dough.

A big part of the cost of wine is the price paid to grape growers. Prestige vineyards charge premium prices, and the wineries follow suit. But if the grower is making the wines, and happens to be a grower with a lot of really good fruit, wouldn’t that result in considerable savings?

Brothers Butch and Jerry Milbrandt planted their first grapes in 1997, and now farm almost 1,600 acres, mostly red grapes in the Wahluke Slope. More than 40 wineries purchase Milbrandt grapes, but some of the best blocks are reserved for their own Milbrandt Vineyards label.

“We can get our grapes turned into wine for less money than smaller producers that buy on the open market,” Butch says. “Another advantage is we have lots to choose from, up to 15 different blocks of any given varietal, to come up with the best possible flavor profile.”

Milbrandt’s winemaker is Gordy Hill, a well-traveled veteran of the Washington wine scene (previously winemaker at Northstar). Two tiers of wines are offered: the Estates wines (previously labeled Legacy) are priced between $20 and $25; several are sold only at the spiffy new tasting room opened last spring in the North Prosser Business Park.

More widely available are the Traditions wines, priced at $13 for the whites and $15 for the reds.
These wines are among a small number of truly compelling Washington red wines priced at $15 or less. If splurge today means going for that $15 bottle, these are the wines to reach for.

Among the current Milbrandt Vineyards Traditions releases are a 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon, dense and dark, ripe and compact, with layers of black fruits, black smoke, black tea and black olives. The 2006 Syrah includes a bit of grenache and petite sirah as well; it’s solid and generous, laced with vanilla/tobacco flavors. There is also a fresh, clean, citrusy 2007 Pinot Gris.

www.milbrandtvineyards.com

This is the Costco house brand, and the new merlot comes through with exceptional flavors for the price. It’s lush and loaded with black cherry and mocha flavors. Tannins are ripe and smooth, the concentration is surprising, and there are no holes in this wine; it plays out smoothly with a very satisfying richness.Chile’s Veramonte aims to bump it up a notch.

In another month or so they’ll be starting the 2009 harvest in Chile, and if things continue as they have in recent years, the joy juice will be flowing. The past five or six vintages have been at least very good, with 2005 and 2007 just about perfect, and one industry analyst has said the country is the best-located in the world to combat climate change, given its natural geography, sustainable water supply and seemingly endless coast.

The only significant challenge facing Chilean winemakers is one that affects virtually every newcomer to the global wine scene: how to bump up its image as a producer of everyday, cheerful value wines to a serious competitor in the market for pricier, super premium wines.

One company working both ends with considerable success is Veramonte. It was the surprise winner on a recent Top 100 list published by online retailer Wine.com. There are a lot of these lists, but this one had an interesting spin: The wines were ranked strictly according to total bottle sales. Vox populi.

The most popular wine of 2008, says Wine.com, was Veramonte’s 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserva. Nearby at No. 5 was Veramonte’s 2007 Sauvignon Blanc Reserva; its 2006 Chardonnay Reserva was No. 21, and its premium red blend, called Primus, appeared at No. 15 (2004 vintage) and No. 90 (2005 vintage).

Veramonte is part of a small group of wineries owned by Agustin Huneeus, a native of Chile who previously developed the Caliterra and Errazuriz brands. Huneeus also owns the Quintessa winery in Napa, but of more interest to most consumers is his passion for Chile’s Casablanca Valley. This pristine grape-growing region had almost no vineyards when he first explored in the early 1990s, but has quickly become known around the world, especially for its racy white wines.

Veramonte is headquartered there, with 1,100 acres of grapes farmed sustainably. Since they were introduced a decade ago, wines from this property have shown steady improvement while maintaining their bargain pricing. Primus, introduced in 2003, is the winery’s Meritage blend.

The vintages named below may be passing from the market, but there is little need for concern. The newest vintages for all these wines should be just as good, if not better.

Veramonte 2007 Sauvignon Blanc Reserva ($10). Sauvignon blanc is the standard-bearer for Casablanca whites. Ultra-fresh, crisp and grassy, reminiscent of New Zealand versions, with perhaps more herb and less lime. Good lingering persistence brings in delicate notes of nettle and celery.

Veramonte 2006 Chardonnay Reserva ($10). A juicy, spicy, fruit-driven New World style of chardonnay with an interesting twist: a little kick to the melon and banana flavors that brings in lemon peel and juniper berry.

Veramonte 2006 Pinot Noir Reserva ($15). American winemaker Paul Hobbs consulted on this stylish but delicate effort. Lightly scented with rose petals and chocolate. Flavors bring mixed berries and cherry, with soft tannins and a suggestion of oak in the finish.

Veramonte 2006 Merlot ($10). Merlot is difficult to make well at this price, so don’t look for Washington-style meat and muscle here. The fruit is just barely ripe, and flavors of leaf and moist earth abound. But the balance is good.Veramonte 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon ($10). Blend includes cabernet franc, carmenere and syrah, giving this flavors that don’t exactly equate to standard cab. Bright and spicy, with tangy berry flavors set against mouth-drying tannins that carry a lingering impression of saltiness.

Veramonte 2005 Primus Red Blend ($20). Oddly, this red blend, which might be considered a genuine reserve effort, is simply labeled with its proprietary name, Primus. Half merlot, a third cabernet, the rest carmenere. Softer and rounder than Veramonte’s cheaper reds, but I found it did not quite live up to the reputation of the vintage — a bit thin and weedy.