Winemaker Notes
With its classic Cabernet profile, this expressive wine shows layers of dark fruits, cocoa, graphite, thyme, and espresso accented by a subtle hint of lavender. The palate showcases blackberry, cassis, and herb flavors leading to a flavorful finish supported by fine tannins.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
A dark raspberry aroma is one thing. But when you add aromas of earth, mint, rosemary and the sweet citrus scent of a guarana perfume, you have something amazing. A lightning bolt of acidity teams up with grippy tannins to support blackberry and black tea flavors. The texture is still a bit chewy. Enjoy 2024–2035.
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James Suckling
Blackberry, olive, iodine and beef broth aromas make for a very savory cabernet. Saline and minerally on the palate, with a firm tannin frame and a medium to full body. Firm finish.
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Wine Spectator
Appealingly structured and expressive, offering black cherry and dark plum flavors accented by licorice and coffee bean tones that finish with fine-grained tannins. Drink now through 2031. 7,000 cases made.
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Vinous
The 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Columbia Valley impresses with a dark mix of crushed black cherries and raspberries complicated by hints of gravel dust and lavender pastille. Cedar tones emerge over a core of brisk acidity.
Washington produces so many exciting wines, and that definitely includes Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. With over 10,000 acres under vine, Cabernet Sauvignon is now the most widely-grown varietal in the state. Terrific examples hail from sub-appellations like Red Mountain, Wahluke Slope, Horse Heaven Hills and Walla Walla Valley. One of the fascinations of these Columbia Valley Cabs is that they so often seem to have one foot in the New World and one in the Old. Representing the former are characteristics like the ripe, forward fruit that results from long sunny days during the growing season (up to two hours longer than in much of California). Old World similarities include an undeniable brightness from acidity, as well as notes of herbs, graphite and a dusty, sometimes gravelly minerality.
Whether you’re looking for a budget bottle for everyday enjoyment, or a stellar, world-class wine with tremendous aging potential, Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon wines can deliver the goods! Among the many fine options are bottles from Columbia Crest, Chateau Ste. Michelle, L’ecole #41, Quilceda Creek and Leonetti.