Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Aromas of black fruit, chocolate and mint on the nose. Full-bodied with chewy tannins. Structured and juicy on the palate with an energetic, savory finish with length. Polished and linear at the end. Try after 2024.
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Wine Enthusiast
Chocolate and cherry flavors rise up from the glass, with plenty of coffee, spice and dried herb accents along with them. The palate brings bountiful tannin along with a zing of acidity. There's a whole lot of structure here. It will have an extremely long life ahead of it. Best after 2028. Cellar Selection.
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Wine & Spirits
From mostly estate sources, this wine starts off big-shouldered and grippy, with scents of menthol, only to fill in with a gorgeous briary plum fruit. It’s plenty con-centrated, with the grip for a charry, smoky steak, blue and bloody. Best Buy
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Beginning with an oak-driven and fresh-fruited nose, the 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Walla Walla bursts from the glass with elements crème de cassis, vanilla and sweet oak tones before elements of dusty plum and dark cherry sway out of a glass with subtle floral tones. Medium to full-bodied, the oak expressions continue on the palate along with a persistent flavor of bitter black tea and firm tannins that grip the gumline. The wine concludes with a firm tannic edge and juicy black fruit essence. The wine rested for 22 months in all French oak, 40% new. Let this one rest for an additional year to 18 months before opening, and drink through this decade.
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.