2015 Quilceda Creek, Cabernet Sauvignon, Columbia Valley, Washington State.
The ultra luxurious Quilceda Creek Cabernet Sauvignon is a rare and pedigreed treat, especially with some age on it and this warm vintage shows off a huge palate much like 2005 and 2009 top Left Bank Bordeaux(s) with loads of creme de cassis, blueberry compote, blackberry and sweet cedary wood leading the way, along with hints of pipe tobacco, coco, pencil shavings, acacia flowers, loony gravel and anise. This flagship bottling, the 2015 Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, was made with 100 percent Cabernet Sauvignon from the Champoux, Lake Wallula, Palengat, and Wallula vineyards, all estate vines within the Red Mountain and Horse Heaven Hills areas of the greater Walla Walla and Columbia Valley region. The grapes were are harvested by hand, and transported 200 miles overnight by truck to the winery in Washington’s Snohomish County, where they were carefully sorted and de-stemmed before starting their cool maceration and fermentation. The lush and full bodied Quilceda Creek Cabernet Sauvignon typically is aged 22 or more months in 100% new French oak, giving that toasty, smoky and vanilla accent, not unlike the famed Chateau Latour in Pauillac, but the fruit density and pouch rounded tannins of this vintage have made the 2015 much more youthfully drinkable. There’s no doubt Quilceda Creek continues to be one of America’s great wines and those that are lucky enough to have them in the cellar with be very much rewarded, with this ripe and supple 2015 being one I’d drink a little sooner than most, coming from this record hot year in Washington.
Quilceda Creek Winery founded in 1978 by Alex Golitzin, considered one of America’s “First Growths”, is located in Snohomish, Washington, and is solely focused on premium Cabernet Sauvignon offerings from mostly all estate grown grapes in the Walla Walla region of Columbia Valley, Washington State. The winery, now run by Alex’s son Paul Golitzin, the President and Director of Winemaking at Quilceda Creek, is named for a nearby creek in Snohomish County, which has long been an inspiration to the Golitzin family. It’s very interesting to note, Alex Golitzin is a nephew of the late and legendary André Tchelistcheff, one of the most influential winemakers of Napa Valley, who helped BV create the Georges de Latour Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignons and Golitzin the elder credits summer trips to visit his uncle in St. Helena, California with developing his early interest in wine. Tchelistcheff began consulting with Washington’s largest winery, Chateau Ste. Michelle, in the 1960s, when the Golitzin family also moved to western Washington. With encouragement and advice from his uncle, Alex Golitzin began making one barrel of Cabernet Sauvignon a year as an amateur winemaker from 1974 through 1977. Although the winery facility is located west of the Cascade Range, the winery sources all of its grapes from its four outstanding estate vineyards in the Horse Heaven Hills AVA and the prodigious Red Mountain AVA. This wine, which is sort of more Napa like in style, scored well with almost every wine writer and critic out there, and there is good reason, though I must say it wasn’t as special as some of the earlier years that absolutely blew me away. I believe the first vintage of Quilceda Creek I tried was either 1998 or 1999, and the 2001 was incredibly profound, they were experiences that stayed with me a long time.
($150-200 Est.) 94 Points, grapelive