2014 Powers Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve Champoux Vineyard

Full Pull

• By Paul Zitarelli
  Full Pull Champoux Cabernet, 8/10/2018

  (Powers Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Champoux Vineyard) Hello friends. Four Washington wineries have ownership stakes in Champoux Vineyard, undeniably one of Washington’s cru Cabernet sites, in the heart of the Horse Heaven Hills (I just wrote about Champoux for Seattle Mag). Those four wineries naturally have access to the filet of the vineyard. Quilceda Creek’s Cabernet Sauvignon ($200) and Woodward Canyon’s Old Vines Cabernet Sauvignon ($110) both contain a backbone of Champoux Cab. Andrew Will’s Sorella ($90) comes entirely from Block One Champoux fruit. And now, from the fourth partner, comes today’s wine:Powers is now in its second generation, with Greg Powers taking over the main winemaking role from his father Bill. Greg was in his late teens when he helped his dad plant their 80-acre family estate, Badger Mountain Vineyard. They were visionaries when it came to organic viticulture, becoming the first Certified Organic vineyard in Washington State in 1990, waaaaay before the notion of organics was trendy. In 1992 they launched Powers Winery, and in 1996 they formed the partnership that purchased Champoux (then called Mercer Ranch). They’ve been working with Champoux fruit for more than two decades, and it shows. This particular bottling spent 30 months in French oak, 75% new, and clocks in at 14% listed alc. The fruit source, the classy barrels, the length of time in oak: all suggest a Cabernet that could command a considerably higher price. That it comes from one of the stronger vintages of the past decade in Washington is the capstone. This offers an unmistakable Champoux nose, with its insistent graphite mineral tones perfectly complicating a core of black fruit (blackcurrant, black plum) and barrel notes of cedar and smoke. This is all pleasure in the front and middle, all velvet, and then Champoux’s signature toothsome tannins emerge, offering a long, grippy English breakfast finish. I love the balance here, with just-right acid and tannin structure framing all the mineral-tinged black fruit. As usual, this is classy juice, punching well above its price class, and serves as a textbook introduction to an important Washington vineyard.