Winemaker Notes
Blend: 89% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Merlot, 2% Malbec
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This is a focused cabernet that has ripe plums, blackberries, tea leaves and dark chocolate on the nose. It’s medium- to full-bodied with fine-grained tannins and a nicely linear and balanced finish. Drink or hold.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Bright cassis, plums, spicy oak, and chocolate notes all emerge from the 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Red Mountain, a nicely textured, medium to full-bodied blend of 89% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Merlot, and 2% Malbec.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY The Canvasback Cabernet Sauvignon, a consistent high-scoring wine, is vivid and bright with fragrant spices, hints of chalk, and vivid red fruits. Try it with grilled, center-cut pork chops. (Tasted: June 12, 2024, San Francisco, CA)
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Wine Enthusiast
Imagine black cherries and a cedar box that once housed Punch Gran Puro cigars. That's how this wine makes its aromatic introduction. Then the medium-bodied Cabernet Sauvignon delivers black-fruit flavor to go with dark-chocolate and balsa notes. Modest acidity is joined by grippy tannins, so prepare to decant.
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Wine Spectator
Taut and sturdy of build, with deep blackberry and currant flavors highlighted by dried sage and dusky spice tones as this builds tannins toward the firm finish. Best after 2026. 16,500 cases made.
A noble variety bestowed with both power and concentration, Cabernet Sauvignon enjoys success all over the globe, its best examples showing potential to age beautifully for decades. Cabernet Sauvignon flourishes in Bordeaux's Medoc where it is often blended with Merlot and smaller amounts of some combination of Cabernet Franc, Malbecand Petit Verdot. In the Napa Valley, ‘Cab’ is responsible for some of the world’s most prestigious, age-worthy and sought-after “cult” wines. Somm Secret—DNA profiling in 1997 revealed that Cabernet Sauvignon was born from a spontaneous crossing of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc in 17th century southwest France.
A coveted source of top quality red grapes among premier Washington producers, the Red Mountain AVA is actually the smallest appellation in the state. As its name might suggest, it is actually neither a mountain nor is it composed of red earth. Instead the appellation is an anticline of the Yakima fold belt, a series of geologic folds that define a number of viticultural regions in the surrounding area. It is on the eastern edge of Yakima Valley with slopes facing southwest towards the Yakima River, ideal for the ripening of grapes. The area’s springtime proliferation of cheatgrass, which has a reddish color, actually gives the area the name, "Red" Mountain.
Red Mountain produces some of the most mineral-driven, tannic and age-worthy red wines of Washington and there are a few reasons for this. It is just about the hottest appellation with normal growing season temperatures commonly reaching above 90F. The soil is particularly poor in nutrients and has a high pH, which results in significantly smaller berry sizes compared to varietal norms. The low juice to skin ratio in smaller berries combined with the strong, dry summer winds, leads to higher tannin levels in Red Mountain grapes.
The most common red grape varieties here are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Syrah, among others. Limited white varieties are grown, namely Sauvignon blanc.
The reds of the area tend to express dark black and blue fruit, deep concentration, complex textures, high levels of tannins and as previously noted, have good aging capabilities.