Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve (100%) was jointly made by Mark McNeilly and Ross Michel. Opaque purple in color, it surrenders a stunning bouquet of pain grille, pencil lead, licorice, espresso, Asian spices, truffle, and black currant. Full-bodied, dense, and plush, this impeccably balanced, powerful yet elegant offering will evolve for at least another 6-8 years and live to see its 25th birthday without difficulty. It is one of the stars of the vintage.
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Wine Spectator
Supple, generous and beautifully focused, accenting its ripe currant and raspberry fruit with hints of licorice, sage, red meat and mineral, lingering on the expressive finish. Combines ripeness with power and exceptional grace.
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Wine Enthusiast
The purity is astonishing—a ringing bell of vivid, racy blueberry, blackberry and black cherry fruit. The 100% new French oak is completely absorbed into the wine, its flavors unobtrusive. The essence of the vineyard and the grape, this is a must-taste for lovers of Cabernet Sauvignon and Red Mountain. Sleek, tight, extremely youthful but polished and dense.
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.