Winemaker Notes
An expressive, full-bodied wine with dark fruit aromas and layers of concentrated wild blackberry, fresh plum and black cherry flavors that gain focus on the palate and carry across the wine’s long, rich finish.
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
Tarry, vinous and sinewy, this wine’s structural elements are wed to its scents of red plum and tanbark, and flavors that feel juicy, rich and lasting. There’s a light acid drive to the finish that will marry with lighter fare, like pork loin.Best Buy
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Wine Spectator
Lithe and polished, with elegantly layered cherry, toasty, spice and espresso flavors that glide toward polished tannins. Drink now through 2024.
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.