My last post was about wine from the north side of Washington state’s border; now we go south to Oregon. Actually, we’ll be traveling to Oregon wine country in August for the 2012 Wine Bloggers Conference, so this post is a prelude to some of the fine wines we will be writing about in a few months.

Cana’s Feast Winery is located in Carlton, Oregon, and to our surprise – and delight – produces an excellent Barbera, one of Dave’s favorite varietals.

Although the wine was produced in Oregon, this fourth vintage of Cana’s Feast Barbera 2009 is the first to be made exclusively from Coyote Canyon Vineyard in the Horse Heaven Hills region of Washington state.

After a few sips, we were not surprised to find out that Cana’s Feast ’09 Barbera won gold at the Winemaker Challenge International Wine Competition. A soft elegant red with rich fruit flavors, this lovely 100% Barbera paired well with our dinner of grilled halibut. Next time, we’ll serve it with Dave’s excellent spaghetti.

And yes, there will be a next time. Rich red in color, with a smooth finish, this ’09 Barbera showcases Washington state wine with an Italian flair. We’re looking forward to tasting many other Italian and Bordeaux varietals from Cana’s Feast.

(Full disclosure: This was a free wine sample from Cana’s Feast. As per our wine sample policy, we only write about wines that we like.)

Cheers!