Winemaker Notes
This enticing and deeply colored red wine shows a complex nose of baking spice, black olive and graham integrated beautifully with aromas of ripe black cherry. In the mouth the wine is rich and elegant, showing classic notes of pepper, herb and berries. Integrated tannins enhance the texture and give proportion; thefinish is complex, generous, and long. While this wine can be enjoyed now it will benefit greatly from additional cellaring and, with proper storage, should develop for ten years.
Blend: 76% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc, 4% Petit Verdot, 4% Syrah
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This wine has deeply concentrated yet focused and spicy purple-fruit tones. It’s generously endowed with notes of tobacco, licorice, mineral and pepper. The highlights keep piling on through a finish that seems to run for several minutes. This bold wine is enjoyable now but should also cellar well through 2020. Editors' Choice
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Wine Spectator
Open-textured and inviting, with a pop of dark berry and sassafras flavors on a supple frame, finishing with firm tannins. This one sneaks up on you.
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.