Winemaker Notes
Blend: 60% Merlot, 21% Cabernet Franc, 12% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 7% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Fashioned from 60% Merlot, 21% Cabernet Franc, 12% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 7% Petit Verdot, the 2002 Ciel du Cheval Vineyard is an exceptional wine. Its aromas burst forth with red cherries, raspberries, blackberries, and spices. Medium to full-bodied, it slathers the taster’s palate with gorgeously intense layers of lush red fruits and dark cherries. Deep, powerful, refined, and seamless, this wine reveals a lengthy, fruit-packed finish.
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Wine Enthusiast
Gloriously structured, this extraordinary effort blends 44% Merlot, 28% Cab Franc, 18% Cab Sauvignon and 10% Petit Verdot into a wine that reveals itself in sculpted layer upon layer of scent and flavor. Citrus peel, plum, wild berry, red currant and spice are set upon a base of rich mineral and rock, with precisely cut tannins. Cellar Selection.
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Wine Spectator
A beautifully formed, harmonious red, firm in texture, with bright currant and strawberry flavors at the center, shaded with floral, herb notes as it lingers effortlessly on the mildly chewy finish. Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot.
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
As the first recognized wine-growing region in the Pacific Northwest, Yakima Valley is centrally located within Washington’s vast Columbia Valley. The region also includes Washington’s oldest Cabernet Sauvignon vines, Otis Vineyard, planted in 1957, and Harrison Hill Vineyard, planted in 1963. Yakima Valley contains three smaller sub-regions: Rattlesnake Hills, Red Mountain, and Snipes Mountain and is ideal for both red and white wine production. In fact, Yakima Valley is Washington’s most diverse region, boasting more than 40 different grape varieties over about one hundred miles.
The cooler parts of the valley are home to almost half of the Chardonnay and Riesling produced in the state! Both are made in a wide range of styles depending on the conditions of the vineyard site.
But its warmer locations yield a large proportion of Washington’s best Merlot, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon. The finest Yakima Valley reds are jam-packed full of red cherry, currant, raspberry or blackberry fruit, as well as cocoa, herb, spice and savory notes, and exhibit a supple texture, great body, focus and length.