Josch48
Member #648,447 signed up 4/23/2019
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2015 Obsidian Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon Obsidian Ridge Vineyard
5/3/2024 - Josch48 Likes this wine: 94 Points
Gorgeously impenetrable blue/black color, amazingly concentrated blue and black fruit aromas, with an ethereal bouquet of Bordeaux cigar box, dried tobacco, and graphite
The silky, fully integrated sweet blueberry and blackberry flavors persist throughout the entire palate, with a finish that does not finish. The medium-heavy mouthfeel is luxurious and elegant, resplendent with a sophisticated yet easily approachable and fully extracted, almost lugubrious delivery of heady fruit compote in silvery liquid form. This high altitude Sonoma Mayacamas Mountain beauty is easily worthy of a two to theee times price point inflation.
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2016 Columbia Crest Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve Stonetree Vineyard - Clone 5
4/21/2024 - Josch48 Likes this wine: 94 Points
Wahluke Slope more
Options4/21/2024 - I LIKE THIS WINE: 94 points (Edit)
I am curious if there are many people outside of the Pacific Northwest of the US who may be aware of the stellar and highly affordable (especially given the consistent high level of their products), Columbia Crest line of Reserve red wines.
This (100% Cabernet Sauvignon) darkly opaque beauty has aromas of intensely concentrated blueberry and boysenberry compote, with a bouquet of faintly smokey, tight grained oak.
The utterly voluptuous medium + viscosity mouthfeel conveys ultra extracted flavors of sweet blue/black fruits, supported by a slippery glycerin-like, yet bright acidity, soft tannins, and a deliciously silky (15% ABV) delivery of a comprehensive enjoyment of fruit redolent over the entire length of the palate, reminiscent of a more rounded version of the offerings of my favorite Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon producers.
Some may understandably draw extraction comparisons with a Ruby Port, or Amarone style of vinification, with no objections from me, but this still youthful wine’s varietal identity is assured.
These Washington State wines, produced by Columbia Crest, are well deserving of sampling.
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2011 Anakota Cabernet Sauvignon Helena Montana Vineyard
4/12/2024 - Josch48 Likes this wine: 93 Points
Impenetrably dark blue/black hue with a slim crimson corona at the edge. Freshly opened, The nose is bouquet forward, showing Bordeaux evoking dried tobacco, graphite, cigar box, aged saddle leather, notes of cedar, and a brilliant central core of heady blackberry and blueberry, tightly wrapped in a sweet toasted oak smokiness.
The medium body, silky mouthfeel shows sweet, yet slightly faded fruit flavors commensurate with the nose, immediately overtaken by an intrusive tannic presence that almost completely displaces the fruit from the mid palate, with the fruit returning timidly, on the finish.
The visually inferred level of extraction is not readily appreciated on the palate past the initial first impressions, and is overtaken by the tight grained French (70% new) oak barrels. The Anakota website does not state whether the oak is tight grained Allier, that usually exhibits delicate flavors and smoother tannins, or Troncais, a more coarse grained oak, that can impart a more heightened oak influence to a wine.
The fruit is supple, sweet, and elegant, but is regrettably overshadowed by demonstrably persistent tannins.
This wine was a gracious gift, one my wine budget does not frequently allow, and the wines from this elevated Sonoma location, Northwest of Calistoga, is not one of familiarity.
The wine exhibits a conundrum, one not readily solved with a snapshot tasting of one vintage, of three location offerings. I will, in all fairness, revisit this review after we enjoy the wine with dinner.
With food, the tannins are tamed and ably support and transport the creamy and sophisticated flavors, in accord with an appropriate acidity. The wine reminds me of my favorite Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon producers, but somehow a wormhole seems to have been opened from Southwest facing, 4,000 feet altitude Sonoma Valley, through to an area midway between Pauillac and Margaux, resulting in a wine wholly uncharacteristic of California.
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