Winemaker Notes
This release of the “Old Vines” Cabernet Sauvignon is dark purple and dense in the glass. Intermingling aromas of ripe blackberries and cassis develop with a rich concentration of ripe black fruits. The new French oak beautifully integrates the fruit, acid, and alcohol creating a nice weight, texture, and overall mouthfeel. The smooth but firm tannins leave you with a rich, long finish. It expresses the purity of fully mature cabernet sauvignon fruit that can only be achieved from old vine fruit. This wine will benefit greatly from additional cellaring and, with proper storage, should last ten years or more.
Critical Acclaim
All VintagesMy favorite in the lineup, the 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Old Vines is 91% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Petit Verdot and 3% Malbec, all aged 22 months in new barrels. Loads of ripe red and black fruits, dried herbs, crushed stone, and savory herb notes give way to a full-bodied, concentrated, yet beautifully balanced, weightless Cabernet that will benefit from 4-6 years in the cellar and keep for two decades or more.
Dark chocolate, barrel spice, vanilla, cherry and licorice aromas are followed by luscious black fruit flavors. There's plenty of richness, texture and seamlessness along with a whole lot of structure. A long finish caps it off. It's all about hedonism, but still possesses impressive balance, a classically Woodward styled wine. The oak is forward at present. Give it some time in the cellar or decant.
Cellar Selection
Blackcurrants, black cherries, charcoal, walnuts and cedar on the nose. It’s full-bodied with firm, ripe tannins. Concentrated and flavorful with a succulent core of dark, spiced fruit. Try from 2022.
Woodward Canyon’s old vines date to 1970s plantings at Sagemoor, Champoux and its estate vineyard in Lowden. In 2018, those vines grew a heady and deep red, its savory scents of tanned leather and tobacco leaf building into black plum and plum-skin flavors. For braised beef.
The winery has consistently produced premium, age-worthy, award-winning Cabernet Sauvignons and Merlots as well as Chardonnays. From the outset, Rick determined that quality would take precedence over quantity.
Consequently, Woodward Canyon has remained small. Woodward Canyon is located in Lowden in the Walla Walla Valley appellation. The tasting room is a restored 1870's farmhouse.
Woodward Canyon is a founding member of the Walla Walla Valley Wine Alliance and VINEA, the Walla Walla Valley Winegrowers' Sustainable Trust.
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.