Vinous

• By Stephen Tanzer
  Washington: Various Shades of Hot (Oct 2017), 10/1/2017 (link)

  (Secret Squirrel Red Wine Washington Red) Subscribe to see review text.

Full Pull

• By Paul Zitarelli
  Full Pull Popularity Contest, 11/25/2018

  (Secret Squirrel Columbia Valley Bordeaux Blend) Hello friends. We’re getting to the point in the year where we can start to look back and reflect on 2018’s offers: what worked well, what died on the vine, etc. In reviewing our most popular wines of the year, the vast majority of them are, sadly, sold out. But one wine in the top ten is still kickin’, as are a pair of wines from late 2017. The holidays are a busy time in wine retail, so no guarantees we’ll be able to reoffer these wines again. Safest to assume it’s last-chance-saloon time for this trio of beauties:Originally offered December 8, 2017, and an inveterate reorder target ever since. Here are excerpts from the original: 2013 was the second, and final, vintage of Secret Squirrel Cabernet Sauvignon. Do you recall how good that Cabernet was? Any guesses as to where all that good Cabernet went in the 2014 vintage? Would it help if I told you the Cabernet proportion in the 2014 Squirrel is up to 43%? Speaking of the 2014 vintage, this was a warm year in Washington that has been lauded over and over again as a high-quality/high-yielding marvel. And what happens in vintages like 2014 is that a lot of high-end juice gets cascaded down into entry level bottles. It’s not like Corliss is suddenly going to double their production of Corliss Cabernet Sauvignon and Corliss Red. And that material isn’t cascading down into Tranche, which is very focused on Blue Mountain Vineyard. If only there was a “secret” location for that great excess juice. The blend for the 2014 is 43% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc, 13% Petit Verdot, and 9% Malbec, all aged in large-format French oak puncheons (35% new) for about two years. It clocks in at 14.5% listed alc and begins with a nose of deep dark fruit (crème de cassis, black plum) swaddled in smoky cocoa powder barrel tones, and complemented by earthy notes of good clean soil. I found myself shaking my head in disbelief when I tasted this one. If ever a vintage of Squirrel has tasted like baby Corliss Red, it’s the 2014: the supple delicious fruit; the palate-saturating richness; the complexity; the textural polish. The finishing tannins are polished, espressoey, and suggestive of expensive Red Mountain Cabernet. My goodness does this dazzle for the price.

• By Paul Zitarelli
  Full Pull Reoffers, 7/6/2018

  (Secret Squirrel Columbia Valley Bordeaux Blend) Hello friends. We have a trio of reoffers today—all knock-out Washington wines that are either on special or in last-call territory.Originally offered December 8, 2017, and an inveterate reorder target ever since. Here are excerpts from the original: 2013 was the second, and final, vintage of Secret Squirrel Cabernet Sauvignon. Do you recall how good that Cabernet was? Any guesses as to where all that good Cabernet went in the 2014 vintage? Would it help if I told you the Cabernet proportion in the 2014 Squirrel is up to 43%? Speaking of the 2014 vintage, this was a warm year in Washington that has been lauded over and over again as a high-quality/high-yielding marvel. And what happens in vintages like 2014 is that a lot of high-end juice gets cascaded down into entry level bottles. It’s not like Corliss is suddenly going to double their production of Corliss Cabernet Sauvignon and Corliss Red. And that material isn’t cascading down into Tranche, which is very focused on Blue Mountain Vineyard. If only there was a “secret” location for that great excess juice. The blend for the 2014 is 43% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc, 13% Petit Verdot, and 9% Malbec, all aged in large-format French oak puncheons (35% new) for about two years. It clocks in at 14.5% listed alc and begins with a nose of deep dark fruit (crème de cassis, black plum) swaddled in smoky cocoa powder barrel tones, and complemented by earthy notes of good clean soil. I found myself shaking my head in disbelief when I tasted this one. If ever a vintage of Squirrel has tasted like baby Corliss Red, it’s the 2014: the supple delicious fruit; the palate-saturating richness; the complexity; the textural polish. The finishing tannins are polished, espressoey, and suggestive of expensive Red Mountain Cabernet. My goodness does this dazzle for the price.

• By Paul Zitarelli
  Full Pull Reoffers, 2/15/2018

  (Secret Squirrel Columbia Valley Bordeaux Blend) Hello friends. We have a six-pack of reoffers today, featuring some of our most popular wines offered over the past few months:Originally offered December 8, 2017, and an inveterate reorder target ever since. Here are excerpts from the original: 2013 was the second, and final, vintage of Secret Squirrel Cabernet Sauvignon. Do you recall how good that Cabernet was? Any guesses as to where all that good Cabernet went in the 2014 vintage? Would it help if I told you the Cabernet proportion in the 2014 Squirrel is up to 43%? Speaking of the 2014 vintage, this was a warm year in Washington that has been lauded over and over again as a high-quality/high-yielding marvel. And what happens in vintages like 2014 is that a lot of high-end juice gets cascaded down into entry level bottles. It’s not like Corliss is suddenly going to double their production of Corliss Cabernet Sauvignon and Corliss Red. And that material isn’t cascading down into Tranche, which is very focused on Blue Mountain Vineyard. If only there was a “secret” location for that great excess juice. The blend for the 2014 is 43% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc, 13% Petit Verdot, and 9% Malbec, all aged in large-format French oak puncheons (35% new) for about two years. It clocks in at 14.5% listed alc and begins with a nose of deep dark fruit (crème de cassis, black plum) swaddled in smoky cocoa powder barrel tones, and complemented by earthy notes of good clean soil. I found myself shaking my head in disbelief when I tasted this one. If ever a vintage of Squirrel has tasted like baby Corliss Red, it’s the 2014: the supple delicious fruit; the palate-saturating richness; the complexity; the textural polish. The finishing tannins are polished, espressoey, and suggestive of expensive Red Mountain Cabernet. My goodness does this dazzle for the price.

• By Paul Zitarelli
  Full Pull Cometh The Hour, Cometh The Squirrel, 12/8/2017

  (Secret Squirrel Columbia Valley Bordeaux Blend) Hello friends. Did I want to be sending this offer out today? No, not really. In fact, I didn’t want to send it out at all in 2017. Because, yeah, we sold a lot of 2013 Secret Squirrel Red this year. A lot a lot. Like, more than any other wine we offered this year. And, ya know, Squirrel fatigue. So normally, this would be comfortably slotted into a spring offer, maybe something like June 12, when we first offered the 2013. Alas, circumstances dictate that time is of the essence. So cometh the hour, cometh the squirrel.Originally offered December 8, 2017, and an inveterate reorder target ever since. Here are excerpts from the original: 2013 was the second, and final, vintage of Secret Squirrel Cabernet Sauvignon. Do you recall how good that Cabernet was? Any guesses as to where all that good Cabernet went in the 2014 vintage? Would it help if I told you the Cabernet proportion in the 2014 Squirrel is up to 43%? Speaking of the 2014 vintage, this was a warm year in Washington that has been lauded over and over again as a high-quality/high-yielding marvel. And what happens in vintages like 2014 is that a lot of high-end juice gets cascaded down into entry level bottles. It’s not like Corliss is suddenly going to double their production of Corliss Cabernet Sauvignon and Corliss Red. And that material isn’t cascading down into Tranche, which is very focused on Blue Mountain Vineyard. If only there was a “secret” location for that great excess juice. The blend for the 2014 is 43% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc, 13% Petit Verdot, and 9% Malbec, all aged in large-format French oak puncheons (35% new) for about two years. It clocks in at 14.5% listed alc and begins with a nose of deep dark fruit (crème de cassis, black plum) swaddled in smoky cocoa powder barrel tones, and complemented by earthy notes of good clean soil. I found myself shaking my head in disbelief when I tasted this one. If ever a vintage of Squirrel has tasted like baby Corliss Red, it’s the 2014: the supple delicious fruit; the palate-saturating richness; the complexity; the textural polish. The finishing tannins are polished, espressoey, and suggestive of expensive Red Mountain Cabernet. My goodness does this dazzle for the price.