Winemaker Notes
The 2015 Pursued by Bear is a Cabernet-driven beast with fragrant aromas and intense fruit flavors that manage to remain balanced and refined, due in part to the grapes’ natural acidity, a hallmark of the Columbia Valley’s warm fall days and cool nights. Full-bodied and voluptuous, this wine is brimming with plush Bing cherries, blueberries and ripe black currants, wrapped in firm, polished tannins. Grapes were sourced from a diverse collection of three award-winning Washington State vineyards to produce a complex, layered wine.
Professional Ratings
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon, blended with 19% Merlot, begins with a dense, dark-fruited core with spicy undertones of oak that waft with elegant floral expressions. Full-bodied, the wine is weighty and well-defined across the mid-palate, delivering pleasuring with a lush, open-knit and generous expression and velvety mouthfeel. The wine continues to evolve in the mouth on the long, lingering and sophisticated finish, giving lasting flavors of blackberry jus, crème brûlée and juicy plum.
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.