Winemaker Notes
The 2017 Quilceda Creek "CVR" Columbia Valley Red Wine is a combination of all our vineyard sites and represents a great value. Lush red and blue fruits are found in this wine with nuances of star anise, smoke, cedar, and minerals.
Blend: 96% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Merlot, and 1% Cabernet Franc
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Really juicy and savory at the moment with beautiful freshness and linear tightness that frames the wine. It’s full and flavorful with currants, coffee and walnuts. Mahogany, too. The tannins are polished and spread across the palate. Accessible and hard not to drink now, but will age wonderfully, too.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2017 Columbia Valley CVR is smoking stuff. Based on 96% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Merlot, and 1% Cabernet Franc sourced from the Champoux, Galitzine, Palengat, and Wallula Vineyards, it has loads of cassis, toasted spice, graphite, and dried tobacco notes as well as full-bodied richness, a broad, expansive mouthfeel, and sweet tannins. It’s not far off the top releases here, and it remains a stunning value in world-class Cabernet Sauvignon. Drink it any time over the coming 15 years or more.
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Tasting Panel
Lush color and a soft, warm, vanilla-inflected nose. Rich, luscious, and toasted, with notes of plum, raspberry, and cherry that go deep on the palate with sweet new oak. Good length and lovely balance.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
A blend of 96% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Merlot and 1% Cabernet Franc, the 2017 CVR Columbia Valley Red Wine jumps out of the glass with aromas of dusty red cherry skin, luscious baking spice, dark plum and cassis. Full-bodied, the wine still has the same attention to detail as its bigger brothers in the range, just at a keener price. In the mouth, the CVR offers up structured tannins with energetic acidity, subtle spice with red and black berry tones. The wine concludes with a delightful and lingering finish.
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.
A large and geographically diverse AVA capable of producing a wide variety of wine styles, the Columbia Valley AVA is home to 99% of Washington state’s total vineyard area. A small section of the AVA even extends into northern Oregon!
Because of its size, it is necessarily divided into several distinctive sub-AVAs, including Walla Walla Valley and Yakima Valley—which are both further split into smaller, noteworthy appellations. A region this size will of course have varied microclimates, but on the whole it experiences extreme winters and long, hot, dry summers. Frost is a common risk during winter and spring. The towering Cascade mountain range creates a rain shadow, keeping the valley relatively rain-free throughout the entire year, necessitating irrigation from the Columbia River. The lack of humidity combined with sandy soils allows for vines to be grown on their own rootstock, as phylloxera is not a serious concern.
Red wines make up the majority of production in the Columbia Valley. Cabernet Sauvignon is the dominant variety here, where it produces wines with a pleasant balance of dark fruit and herbs. Wines made from Merlot are typically supple, with sweet red fruit and sometimes a hint of chocolate or mint. Syrah tends to be savory and Old-World-leaning, with a wide range of possible fruit flavors and plenty of spice. The most planted white varieties are Chardonnay and Riesling. These range in style from citrus and green apple dominant in cooler sites, to riper, fleshier wines with stone fruit flavors coming from the warmer vineyards.