Winemaker Notes
Critical Acclaim
All VintagesLots of cassis, camphor, spice, and violets notes as well as background oak emerge from the 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon, which is all Cabernet Sauvignon aged in 22 months in new barrels. With full-bodied richness, awesome purity of fruit, and a powerful, mouthfilling style, it's in the top two or three Bordeaux blends in the vintage. Give this remarkable 2017 3-5 years of bottle age, longer if you can, and it's going to be very long-lived.
Yum. This shows intense blackberries, blueberries and spice. Medium-to full-bodied and spicy. Cedar and smoked almonds, too. The tannins are firm and chewy, yet polished. A blend of 86% cabernet sauvignon, 8% merlot, 5% malbec and 1% petit verdot. Needs a year or three to soften. Drink or hold.
Up-front aromas of cocoa, dark cherry, licorice, barrel spice and scorched earth are followed by dense, full, textured fruit flavors backed by exquisitely balanced tannin and acid structure. Everything is in perfect proportion, nary a hair out of place. Best from 2028–2035.
Instantly impressive with a deep ruby color and soft purple highlights, the 2017 Walla Walla Cabernet Sauvignon floods the nose with rich, ripe and robust fruit tones. Juicy aromas of cherry compote, stewed plum and blackberry essence waft out of the glass with cinnamon-spiced oak tones and resinous purple flowers, compounded by an elegant nuance of turned earth. Full-bodied, the wine exudes with a robust expression that fills all of the corners of the palate with pleasure, power and finesse. An instant blockbuster, the wine ends with a long, drawn-out finish, with the flavors continuing to evolve on the palate for more than a minute, showing remarkable precision with notions of bitter dark chocolate and black cherries covered in cinnamon. Try to give it a few more years before opening. I’m tempted to open it now because it’s so beautiful, but patience will be rewarded here. Stunning!
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.
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.
