Winemaker Notes
The Merlot-dominated 2019 Clos de Betz shows a brilliant magenta rim leading to a dark ruby core. The aromatic acrobatics shout Merlot: black and red cherries, pomegranate, fresh herbs and cocoa powder leap from the glass, with leather, tobacco, sage and emerging with air. The palate is characteristically weighty and dense while also displaying the precision and detail of the vintage. Flavors of black and red raspberry, dark plum, black licorice and candied orange sail into a long-lived and mouthwatering finish with great mineral tension. This Clos de Betz manages to combine elegance, intensity and vibrancy into a succulent package for a wine so young, but will still offer 10+ years of marvelous drinking.
Blend: 51% Merlot, 21% Cabernet Sauvignon, 28% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Aromas of crushed blackberries, red cherries and sage. Full-bodied with silky tannins. Elegant and polished on the palate. Linear, with lovely harmony and length. Nuanced and refined. Well-ripened fruit, but not overdone, with charming complexity. A blend of merlot, cabernet sauvignon and petit verdot. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Succulent, ripe and juicy, the 2019 Clos de Betz offers fresh aromas of red cherry, juicy plum and black raspberry with a delightful dusty and floral essence that wafts from the glass. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is focused, precise and delineated, showing impressive mineral tension, mouth-watering acidity and fine-grained tannins. The Clos de Betz concludes with a long-lingering and evolving finish and will remain food-friendly for almost two decades, proving to be crushable in youth and age-worthy with cellaring.
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Wine Enthusiast
This is a glorious offering of this Merlot-dominant blend, featuring a whopping 28% Petit Verdot and 21% Cabernet Sauvignon. Aromas of cocoa, plum, spice, licorice, chocolate, flower and moist earth lead to plush, palate-coating flavors that show precision and detail and sneaky intensity that only ramps up over time. The finish goes on and on. It's gorgeous—among the best the winery has made in the last decade. Best from 2026–2032.
Cellar Selection -
Wine Spectator
Sleek and lilting, with elegantly complex red currant, dusky spice and tobacco flavors that build structure and polish toward refined tannins. Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot. Drink now through 2031.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Lots of darker cherries, dried herbs, leather, and a hint of chocolate emerge from the 2019 Clos De Betz, a medium to full-bodied, pretty, polished, elegant red with enough density and depth to evolve for a decade. The blend is 51% Merlot, 21% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 28% Petit Verdot that was brought up in 59% new French oak.
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.
A large and geographically diverse AVA capable of producing a wide variety of wine styles, the Columbia Valley AVA is home to 99% of Washington state’s total vineyard area. A small section of the AVA even extends into northern Oregon!
Because of its size, it is necessarily divided into several distinctive sub-AVAs, including Walla Walla Valley and Yakima Valley—which are both further split into smaller, noteworthy appellations. A region this size will of course have varied microclimates, but on the whole it experiences extreme winters and long, hot, dry summers. Frost is a common risk during winter and spring. The towering Cascade mountain range creates a rain shadow, keeping the valley relatively rain-free throughout the entire year, necessitating irrigation from the Columbia River. The lack of humidity combined with sandy soils allows for vines to be grown on their own rootstock, as phylloxera is not a serious concern.
Red wines make up the majority of production in the Columbia Valley. Cabernet Sauvignon is the dominant variety here, where it produces wines with a pleasant balance of dark fruit and herbs. Wines made from Merlot are typically supple, with sweet red fruit and sometimes a hint of chocolate or mint. Syrah tends to be savory and Old-World-leaning, with a wide range of possible fruit flavors and plenty of spice. The most planted white varieties are Chardonnay and Riesling. These range in style from citrus and green apple dominant in cooler sites, to riper, fleshier wines with stone fruit flavors coming from the warmer vineyards.