2015 Betz Family Cabernet Sauvignon Père de Famille

JancisRobinson.com

• By Alistair Cooper MW
  3/10/2020, (See more on JancisRobinson.com...)

  (Betz Family, Père de Famille Columbia Valley Red) Subscribe to see review text.

JebDunnuck.com

• By Jeb Dunnuck
  Latest Releases from Washington State, 4/5/2018, (See more on JebDunnuck.com...)

  (Betz Family Winery Cabernet Sauvignon Père de Famille) Login and sign up and see review text.

JamesSuckling.com

• By James Suckling
  3/18/2018, (See more on JamesSuckling.com...)

  (Betz Cabernet Sauvignon Columbia Valley Père de Famille, Red, United States) Login and sign up and see review text.

Decanter

• By John Stimpfig
  Washington State Reds, 3/13/2018, (See more on Decanter...)

  (Betz Family, Pere de Famille, Columbia Valley, Washington, USA, Red) Login and subscribe to see review text.

• By Stephen Tanzer
  Washington: Various Shades of Hot (Oct 2017), 10/1/2017, (See more on Vinous...)

  (Betz Family Winery Cabernet Sauvignon Père De Famille Washington Red) Login and sign up and see review text.

Full Pull

• By Paul Zitarelli
  Full Pull Betz, 3/25/2018

  (Betz Family Winery Cabernet Sauvignon Pere de Famille) Hello friends. The opportunity to work with Betz Family Winery is one of the great professional thrills that comes with a career in Washington wine. It’s a widely held belief: Bob Betz’s face would be chiseled on a Mt. Rushmore of Washington winemakers. He is one of the very few Masters of Wine to ever make wine in Washington, having achieved that honor back in 1998. After a 28-year career at Chateau Ste Michelle, he launched his eponymous winery in 1997, crushing 150 cases worth of wine in the Woodinville warehouse district. Since then, production has grown to 3500 cases total, but acclaim has grown more quickly than that, forcing the family to close their mailing list in 2008 and establishing them as one of Washington’s cult wineries. Steve and Bridgit Griessel came on board as managing owners in 2011, and the winery is open to its list members on just two weekends each year: once in the fall, for the release of its Rhone portfolio, and once in the spring, for the release of these Bordeaux-styled wines. The challenge, as usual, is allocations. (As a reminder, our allocation scheme favors breadth over depth, so that everyone gets one bottle before anyone gets two. And our formula for prioritizing allocations includes overall orders, frequency of orders, recency of orders, and list tenure, among other factors.) Just like every spring, these are painfully limited wines, but trust that we’ll do our best to source as much as possible for our list members.Pere is always Cabernet dominant, sourced primarily from Ciel du Cheval and Kiona Heart of the Hill on Red Mountain. This year Cab makes up 87% of the blend, the remainder Merlot and Petit Verdot, all aged for 19 months 100% new French oak. The listed alcohol is 14.5%. Pere is considered one of Washington’s most age-worthy wines, emerging from its shell at about a decade past vintage and drinking beautifully for years after that. From the winery: Père de Famille is our Cabernet Sauvignon based wine from the Columbia Valley of Washington; but to stop the story here would say little of what it took for us to get to this far. Since 1997, the quest to produce the quintessential Washington Cabernet Sauvignon has sent us searching the state’s vineyard land, looking for parcels capable of contributing to our goal. To sum it up, nearly two decades of vineyard trials. 2015 Père de Famille Cabernet Sauvignon clearly shows its lineage clearly while also providing a clear expression of the vintage. Deep magenta to the core, it begins with a knockout aroma of black currant and black. Complex notes of bay leaf, thyme and black olive share the stage with baking spices. Given time in the glass, perfumed white flowers and red currants tease their way out. The palate impression is one of early tannins integration, creating a seamless texture and terrific length on the palate. The 2015 Père de Famille is delicious now but will easily offer up to two decades of cellar life.