Winemaker Notes
Dense saturated color. The bouquet opens with fresh plum, roasted coffee beans, toast and ethereal spices. On the palate the notes of dark cherry compote and baking spices harmonize with a creamy mouth feel and a delicious finish that lasts forever. A truly cerebral wine of levity and balance.
Blend: 82% Cabernet Sauvignon, 18% Malbec
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2019 Reserve is an interesting blend of 82% Cabernet Sauvignon and 18% Malbec that's sourced from the Loess, Holy Roller, Mill Creek Upland, and Serra Pedace vineyards. It's similarly inky hued and offers up a great nose of pure cassis and blueberry fruits intermixed with notes of graphite, tobacco, violets, and gravelly earth. It brings full-bodied richness and depth on the palate, with ultra-fine tannins and beautiful overall balance, as well as elegance. It's slightly more streamlined and elegant compared to the base Cabernet Sauvignon, which is more tannic and powerful, yet both are brilliant wines in the same ballpark qualitatively. This can be drunk today or cellared for 25+ years or more. Best After 2022
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Vinous
The 2019 Red Wine Reserve opens dark and brooding yet quickly gains a menthol freshness as black currants and savory herbs give way to ashen stone. This soothes with its juicy acidity, as a wave of crisp red and black fruits easily wash across the palate. The 2019 holds its power in reserve, coming through in the finish with grippy tannins and a vivid whiplash of licorice and spice. This is a blend of 82% Cabernet Sauvignon and 18% Malbec. It's a real beauty, focused on fruit yet balanced for a long and steady evolution.
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James Suckling
Inviting, rounded aromas of plums, roses, ground clove and fresh coffee. Full-bodied with fine chewy tannins. Cozy, plush fruit with great depth and intensity. Wonderfully balanced and deep. Subtle notes of nutmeg and sweet paprika mix with thyme and charred rosemary. Nuanced. 82% cabernet sauvignon and 18% malbec.
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Wine Spectator
Precision meets torque with this deeply structured red, which is intense with black currant, olive, clove and other dusky spices. Builds tension toward well-buffed tannins. Hands off for now. Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec. Best after 2023
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
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.