Winemaker Notes
The Red Mountain AVA is wonderfully suited to ripen Cabernet Sauvignon, and Ciel du Cheval Vineyard gets it right every year. This wine is packed with cassis, boysenberry, and black cherry notes. The palate is brimming with black and red fruits and vanilla flavors while a beautifully flavored entry leads to a concentrated and well-structured finish.
Blend: 96% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Cabernet Franc
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Medium- to full-bodied red with blueberries, blackcurrants, violets and manuka on the nose. Green olives and licorice, too. Spicy and flavorful with ripe, mellowed tannins. I like the savory edge.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Made with 4% Cabernet Franc, the 2020 Cabernet Sauvignon Ciel du Cheval Vineyard exhibits ripe red and black fruit aromas, including black raspberry, dark cherry and spiced plum before notions of graphite and hints of brown baking spices waft from the glass. Medium to full-bodied, the Cabernet reveals a delightful mineral tension and food-friendly tannins over a balanced structure. It concludes with a savory, herbal edge and a mineral-laced finish.
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.