2015 Cadence Camerata Cara Mia Vineyard

• By Stephen Tanzer
  Focus on Washington: The New Normal (Nov 2018), 11/1/2018, (See more on Vinous...)

  (Cadence Winery Camerata Cara Mia Vineyard Washington Red) Login and sign up and see review text.

JebDunnuck.com

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

  (Cadence Camerata) Login and sign up and see review text.

Full Pull

• By Paul Zitarelli
  Full Pull Cadence (+Thanksgiving Closure REMINDER), 11/21/2018

  (Cadence Camerata Cara Mia Vineyard) Thanksgiving Closure REMINDER: Full Pull will be closed Thursday-Saturday Nov 22-24 to allow our team to celebrate Thanksgiving with family and friends. We'll be back to normal operating hours (11am-7pm) on Nov 29-Dec 1. Happy Thanksgiving! ---- Hello friends. In an industry where trends ebb and flow, vintage conditions affect available grapes, and staff changes can mean reinvention, it can be hard for wineries to nail down a house style. In our corner of the world, a house style sets wineries apart in a sea of stand-out Washington wines; it allows consumers to purchase wine with confidence, knowing exactly what to expect from a bottle they haven’t tasted. We’ve long waxed poetic about Cadence—and winemaker Ben Smith’s ability to master the art of a house style. He has created a vineyard-focused bordeaux lineup that is consistent year in and year out. His house style focuses on three components: textural elegance, carefully-tended structure, and finely-tuned balance. What’s fascinating about this vintage release is watching Ben, whose area of expertise is decidedly elegance, deal with the hottest vintage on record and still succeed wildly. The key to Ben’s success in this hot vintage is the experience he has from the vineyards he usually sources from—all atop Red Mountain. Red Mountain is typically among the warmest growing areas in Washington, and Ben learned long ago how to tame tannins and fight too much fruit. His skillful elegance is more present than ever in the 2015 vintage, when many other wines succumbed to the heat. Over the last two vintages, Ben has moved Camerata back toward its roots—a very high proportion of Cabernet Sauvignon. This year it may be the highest ever, 90% Cab Sauv and 10% Merlot, all from Cadence’s estate vineyard Cara Mia. It was raised in 50% new French Oak and clocks in at 14.7% listed alcohol. This wine fully embraces its Cabernet character; it’s full of cassis and cherries overlain with fennel seed, dried flowers, and Red Mountain earth. On the palate, deep, moody fruit prevails, slowly giving in to the onset of dusty, black tea tannins. This bottle is impeccably structured, elegant, and clearly suited for long-term evolution.Camerata is the kind of wine you give to a friend who has never had Washington wine or heard of Red Mountain to make them a true believer in what the region can produce. Jeb Dunnuck: Copyrighted material withheld.