Winemaker Notes
With its classic varietal Cabernet profile, this focused and integrated wine shows layers of dark fruit, espresso, violet and herbal notes. Layers of plum, blackberry and cassis mingle with dusty, fine tannins through a balanced finish.
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
Dark as coal when first poured, this wine has a subtle, earthbound power that takes time in the glass to emerge. With its notes of plum skin and fig, and dark, muscular oak component, it’s a well-priced cabernet for ribs.
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Wine Spectator
Sleek and precise, with expressive blackberry, espresso and licorice flavors that take on richness toward the refined tannins. Drink now through 2024.
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James Suckling
Blackberries and black olives with some crushed tile undertones. Medium-bodied, firm and silky. Fine and easy. Drink now.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Wafting from the glass with notes of pencil shavings, black currants, dried herbs and loamy soil, the 2015 Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon is medium-bodied, nicely concentrated and layered, with a good core of fruit, fine-grained but youthfully firm structuring tannins and a sappy finish. It's a persuasively characterful and complete wine from a challenging vintage.
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.