Winemaker Notes
Blend: 77% Merlot, 13% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Syrah
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
For thoughts on Chateau Ste Michelle's uniqueness and recent evolution, consult my extensive April, 2013 text designed to introduce recent tasting notes. Black tea, sassafras, cola, and bittersweet floral perfume garland the rich, still freshly juicy cherry of Ste. Michelle’s 2008 Merlot Canoe Ridge Estate, reconvening on a palate that reveals fine-grained tannins, vivacious freshness, yet at the same time dark, savory depth suggesting peat, tobacco, and crushed stone. At 14.5% alcohol, it avoids the slight heat found in its 2009 and 2010 counterparts, and as with most of the Ste Michelle reds, the barrel component (here just over half new) remains appropriately discreet. This finishes with a wonderful combination of mouthwateringly saline savor, nuance, vibrancy, focus, and sheer persistence. A sensational value that has no doubt already picked up complexity in bottle, it ought to reward following for at least another half dozen years. Incidentally, this incorporated as blending components only (but substantially) 13% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Syrah. (When Ste Michelle goes unorthodox, they do so with good reason!)
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Wine Spectator
Supple, ripe and generous, with a black pepper note weaving harmoniously through the focused black cherry and toast flavors that push through fine tannins on the refined finish. Drink now through 2016.
With generous fruit and supple tannins, Merlot is made in a range of styles from everyday-drinking to world-renowned and age-worthy. Merlot is the dominant variety in the wines from Bordeaux’s Right Bank regions of St. Emilion and Pomerol, where it is often blended with Cabernet Franc to spectacular result. Merlot also frequently shines on its own, particularly in California’s Napa Valley. Somm Secret—As much as Miles derided the variety in the 2004 film, Sideways, his prized 1961 Château Cheval Blanc is actually a blend of Merlot and Cabernet Franc.
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.