Winemaker Notes
The 2021 Grand Ciel Cabernet Sauvignon is a powerhouse of a wine that effortlessly shows off its beautiful intensity and concentration. The nose slowly showcases aromas of wild blackberry, Bing Cherry, hoisin, and tobacco leaf. The chocolaty palate has seamless, chalky tannins engulfed in clove flavors, green olive, cinnamon stick, and a hint of fresh Lilac. There is a lot of energy in this rich, textured effort that exudes elegance and precision. The lengthy finish is focused and has great purity of fruit with a savory edge.
Professional Ratings
-
Decanter
The Grand Ciel vines are from 2000 on this Red Mountain estate site and are solely planted to clone 191. This wine shows intense concentration, dark berries, rich cherry flesh aromatics, myrrh, and one vineyard block. This wine makes just 300-400 cases. Aromatics of woodsmoke, graphite and a melange of peppercorn. This is a Red Mountain Cabernet of elegance, mouthfuls of smoky florals, savoury dried desert scrub and a tang of blackberries and mint. It's delicious and redolent now but will further integrate and knit itself together; its concentration and intensity will mellow. The tannins are already so wonderfully integrated, but this wine will age beautifully.
-
Jeb Dunnuck
The 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Grand Ciel Vineyard is a savory wine from one clone, full-bodied and richly layered, showing plenty of power and brawn, aged 20 months in French oak (86% new) and bottle aged another 18 months before release. Black fruit, clove, tobacco, and smoky oak ride along a frame of well-resolved tannins and enough structure.
-
James Suckling
Deep and brooding, this has aromas of small blackberries, blackcurrants, cloves, black olives and thyme. It’s firm and full-bodied, dark-fruited, with spicy nuances and a sturdy tannin frame. Classy. Try from 2028.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Matured for 20 months entirely in new French oak, the 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Grand Ciel is scented of blackcurrant, violet, aniseed, coffee and tar. The full-bodied palate offers floral flavors structured by clay-textured tannins and rounded acidity, and it has a youthfully dense finish. Give it 3-5 years in the cellar.
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.