Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
What I think of as the top cuvee of the estate (although the new Mourvèdre Gratitude cuvee is just about as good), the 2014 Petit Verdot Olsen Vineyard is 100% Petit Verdot, from the same higher elevation site as the Gratitude, that was destemmed and aged 40% in 225-liter barrels. A perfect steak wine with its unctuous, full-bodied and powerful style, it gives up lots of cassis, graphite, crushed rock and violet-like aromas and flavors. While it’s a big wine, it stays remarkably elegant and graceful, with polished tannin and notable freshness. It’s a fabulous expression of this variety.
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Wine Spectator
Polished and expressive, with dynamic blueberry and kirsch aromas and delicately layered flavors that breeze toward a lively finish.
One of the original Bordeaux varieties, Petit Verdot has a bold structure, color and aromas, which allow it to make a significant difference in Bordeaux Blends—even in modest amounts. While it isn’t planted in Bordeaux in great quantities anymore, its virtues are increasingly identified elsewhere. Somm Secret—Producing phenomenal single-varietal wines in hot and dry locations in the New World, Petit Verdot also finds a happy home in parts of Spain as well as in in Portugal’s Alentejo where it gracefully blends with the regions' indigenous varieties.
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.