Winemaker Notes
40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 34% Cabernet Franc, 19% Merlot, 7% Malbec
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2007 Two Blondes is sourced from a vineyard planted and owned by Camarda in Yakima Valley. Its blend is 49% Cabernet Sauvignon, 34% Cabernet Franc, 19% Merlot, and 7% Malbec It offers up the most complex and complete aromatics of the single vineyard offerings with its array of sandalwood, lavender, incense, smoke, espresso, cassis, and black currant. Velvety-textured, layered, and opulent, this concentrated, lengthy, full-throttle effort should easily see its 25th birthday.
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Wine Enthusiast
This Two Blondes is the best ever—powerful and ripe, with a plush mix of raspberry and strawberry fruit, tart and tangy and mouthfilling. This wine has a huge midpalate, but doesn’t stop there; as it slowly winds through a full-throttle finish, threads of chocolate, coconut, caramel and coffee appear. The flavors go on for several minutes.
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Wine & Spirits
This is a blend of cabernets sauvignon and franc with merlot and malbec. Its macerated fig component hints at tar and sassafras, air bringing out a finely wrought scent of evergreen. The dark fig and blueberry flavors are dense and fruit-driven, the texture pliant and ripe. The wine finishes with impressive length and enough fruit tannin to match a rouladen of beef.
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Wine Spectator
Smooth, polished and distinctive for a floral cast to its red berry, pomegranate and caramel flavors, lingering on the finish. Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Malbec. Drink now through 2015.
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.