Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Heart Of The Hill shows the riper style of the vintage and brings beautiful richness while staying balanced, pure, and even elegant. Cassis, darker berry fruits, flowery incense, and lead pencil notes all define the bouquet, and it's full-bodied, brings tons of fruit, has sweet tannins, and a great finish.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
A chewy, muscular wine with considerable upside, the 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Heart of the Hill unfurls in the glass with notions of creamy cassis, plums, espresso roast and dark chocolate. On the palate, it's full-bodied, layered and concentrated, with considerable tannin and extract that will require some time to resolve. It's well-balanced and intense, and those tannins are ripe, so I suspect the only missing ingredient is time.
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.