Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
Dark and plummy at first, with bottom notes of ink and tanbark, this youthful wine bears and intriguing hint of humus-rich earth. Its cassis flavors are vinous and inky at once, propped up by dark oak notes and earthy tannin. Give it time in the cellar, then serve with herb roasted lamb.
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Wine Spectator
Focused, complex and compelling with the dark berry and cherry flavors picking up nutmeg, tar and tea notes along the way. The finish brings together everything harmoniously, and doesn’t let go. Drink now through 2019.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The purple/black 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Walla Walla Valley was aged for 22 months in 40% new French oak. It delivers an excellent nose of balsam wood, leather, violets, black cherry, and blackberry. Round, plush, and friendly on the palate with nicely concealed fine-grained tannin, it should continue to blossom for several more years and offer a drinking window extending through 2022.
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Wine Enthusiast
This is a real Walla Walla smorgasbord, mixing grapes from Seven Hills, Pepper Bridge, Va Piano, Loess and Yellow Jacket vineyards, representing three quite different types of soil in the Walla Walla Valley. It includes 6% Cab Franc, which shows immediately in the floral elements as well as providing an underlying minerality. Dense and tarry, with black fruits and a wonderful rock-based frame, this wine has excellent definition. From the scents of violet and blossom, to the sweet berry fruit, to the thick, smoky, chewy tannic finish, it shows heft and power.
Washington produces so many exciting wines, and that definitely includes Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. With over 10,000 acres under vine, Cabernet Sauvignon is now the most widely-grown varietal in the state. Terrific examples hail from sub-appellations like Red Mountain, Wahluke Slope, Horse Heaven Hills and Walla Walla Valley. One of the fascinations of these Columbia Valley Cabs is that they so often seem to have one foot in the New World and one in the Old. Representing the former are characteristics like the ripe, forward fruit that results from long sunny days during the growing season (up to two hours longer than in much of California). Old World similarities include an undeniable brightness from acidity, as well as notes of herbs, graphite and a dusty, sometimes gravelly minerality.
Whether you’re looking for a budget bottle for everyday enjoyment, or a stellar, world-class wine with tremendous aging potential, Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon wines can deliver the goods! Among the many fine options are bottles from Columbia Crest, Chateau Ste. Michelle, L’ecole #41, Quilceda Creek and Leonetti.