Community Tasting Note

Renegade wrote:

Sunday, February 28, 2010 - I am lucky enough to be on Quilceda Creek's mailing list. I ordered 7 bottles, one for opening right away, the others to cellar; I am glad I did this. This is definitely a full throttle wine, it is 15.2% alcohol which surprisingly high for Washington. However, it is one of the very few high alcohol wines that I think can age and improve. This wine is heavy bodied and has a very deep, dark purple color to it. This bottle was decanted 6 hours before consuming, and there is still some left, which means and upgrade in notes could be coming. However, at this point it gave off incredible aromas of licorice, chocolate, cassis, cedar, incense and slight floral notes as well. It tasted of chocolate, licorice, herbal(almost like Jagermeister) and red fruits. In spite of the very high alcohol, somehow Quilceda Creek is able to have enough up front acid for providing an ageable wine. The tannins are very powerful. While the winery is claiming this wine will go 30+, and they could be correct, my guess is this wine needs at least 8 years from vintage date before opening, and should age and improve for 25 years from vintage date.

The one unfortunate thing about Quiliceda Creek is this, I think while this was an amazingly good wine, I think they are going away from what made them great to begin with, and they are trying too much for a Robert Parker 100 point rating, instead of letting natural terroir have its influence. I have to say, that for this style of wine, their winemaker has great versatility. I am just hoping that the winemaker goes back to tradition, which would be making a food friendly wine. Hopefully, Quilceda Creek considers picking at 21 to 24 brix in the future, if they do that, they easily have everything it takes to make a wine that can compete with a 1st Growth Bordeaux. Right now, it looks like Quilceda Creek is competing with the likes of Harlan Estate, Hundred Acre, Sloan, Bryant Family and other great California Cult wines. No doubt, Quilceda Creek is every bit as good as the cult wineries, yet they are are a fraction of the cost of them. While I prefer more traditional styled wines, I will not let that influence my rating; there is no douibt that for this style of wine, you will have to look to the best of California cult wines to match this, and then you will have to pay far more. This is an easy 98 point rating for now, and for this style of wine, if it improves should easily get a 100 point rating.

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