Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Are you kidding me? $25 for a Gramercy wine? Load up on this one. Aromas of macerated strawberries, dark cherries and a trace of corn masa are a nice start. Then you get ripe red-raspberry and dark-chocolate flavors that go on forever. This is silky smooth stuff, with nicely integrated tannins
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Wine & Spirits
Lower East is Gramercy’s entry-level cabernet, and it overdelivers mightily. The 2019 is savory, with ethereal scents of evergreen and pine tips, cedar, then cardamom and cinnamon. This palette is all in the service of dark blackberry fruit, dense and firm, with the concentration and ageability of a wine twice the price.
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Wine Spectator
Keenly structured and elegantly detailed, this red offers currant and cherry flavors accented by hints of espresso and spices, gathering tension toward refined tannins. Drink now through 2029. 2,234 cases made.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Made with splashes of Merlot and Petit Verdot, the 2019 Lower East Cabernet Sauvignon is succulent and red-berried with floral and spicy elements that waft from the fresh and open nose. Medium to full-bodied, the wine is focused, mineral-tensioned and balanced with a soft tannic edge and ends with a food-friendly finish. Aged 18 months in 28% new French oak, this fantastic wine will be released in early 2024. This is impressive and complex, punching well above its weight class.
Rating: 90+
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.
Responsible for some of Washington’s most highly acclaimed wines, the Walla Walla Valley has experienced a surge in popularity in recent years and is home to both historic wineries and younger, up-and-coming producers.
The Walla Walla Valley, a Native American name meaning “many waters,” is located in southeastern Washington; part of the appellation actually extends into Oregon. Soils here are well-drained, sandy loess over Missoula Flood deposits and fractured basalt.
It is a region perfectly suited to Rhône-inspired Syrahs, distinguished by savory notes of red berry, black olive, smoke and fresh earth. Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot create a range of styles from smooth and supple to robust and well-structured. White varieties are rare but some producers blend Sauvignon Blanc with Sémillon, resulting in a rich and round style, and plantings of Viognier, while minimal, are often quite successful.
Of note within Walla Walla, is one new and very peculiar appellation, called the Rocks District of Milton-Freewater. This is the only AVA in the U.S. whose boundaries are totally defined by the soil type. Soils here look a bit like those in the acclaimed Rhône region of Chateauneuf-du-Pape, but are large, ancient, basalt cobblestones. These stones work in the same way as they do in Chateauneuf, absorbing and then radiating the sun's heat up to enhance the ripening of grape clusters. The Rocks District is within the part of Walla Walla that spills over into Oregon and naturally excels in the production of Rhône varieties like Syrah, as well as the Bordeaux varieties.