The People
Making great wine is a religious experience. The best teams have a deep, heart-felt affinity for the land and a reverence for the vines that they worship. Gianfranco Farimbella and Joshua Maloney understand the soil, sun, wind, and rain and share a passion for crafting great wine.
Vineyard manager, Gianfranco, grew up in Brescia, Italy where he watched his grandmother and uncles tend to the vines on the family vineyard. Wine is in his DNA. He worked vineyards all over Italy including Lombardy, Tuscany, and Sardinia before making the move to Washington. Most days you will find him in the fields with plenty of that sandy, silty, nutrient-rich Red Mountain dirt under his fingernails tending to each vine and evaluating every grape cluster.
Joshua is the winemaker. He is an expert in shepherding the journey from vine to bottle. He carefully exercises his craft with the joy and confidence of a priest tending to his flock. Over 100 of his wines have received scores of 90 or more points from major wine publications. A native New Yorker, he went to Cornell and started working in the Finger Lakes wine industry before moving to Washington to make his mark. After fine tuning his skills at Chateau Ste. Michelle, the oldest winery in the state, he jumped ship to build Chasing Rain into something special. At Blurred Vines we love great wines that are made by interesting people. This duo is as interesting as they come.
The Juice
This classic blend of cabernet sauvignon, merlot, malbec, petit verdot, and cabernet franc combines all the traditional varietals of Bordeaux into a single bottle of ‘WOW’! This wine twice took home the silver medal in international competitions and has been awarded over 90 points by four different publications and critics. Smell it, feel it, taste it, and savor the finish.
The Dirt
When Texans think about Washington, we think about rain (or coffee, or hipsters, or grunge), however, the eastern part of the state is as sunny and dry as Big Bend. The Red Mountain region gets less than five inches of rainfall per year. This gives vineyard manager control over the amount of water the vines receive which results in rich, bold, flavorful red wine with intense complexity and structure. With well-drained volcanic soils, south-facing slopes, and 300+ days of sunshine a year, Western Washington is an idyllic location for growing grapes.
The Taste
Black cherry, raspberry, and mocha on the nose with hints of star anise and baking spice. Polished and rich on the fore palate, leading to a dense and layered mid-palate with complex notes of dried herb and black fruit. Finishes long, with fine grain tannins and hints of toast oak.
The Spill
Our Co-Founder Bill loves this wine and loves to share it with others. While he is not opposed to opening a $275 bottle of Napa cabernet, he hesitates to share cases of that stuff with his thirsty friends. Chasing Rain is his “go to” when he is entertaining sophisticated wine drinkers that aren’t big on self-restraint. That way he can sit back and enjoy their company without seeing big dollar signs in every cork pulled. There are apparently limits to his famous generosity. He says, “I serve the Chasing Rain Blend and just let people assume that it is expensive. It has such a velvety mouth feel while still being big and juicy. It gets even better after a few minutes in a decanter. It is no wonder we tend to go through case after case.”
