**What is it:** 100% Cabernet sauvignon from the Grand Ciel vineyard on Red Mountain in Washington. Delille considers it to be their top site and prices it accordingly, though it can be found quite cheap on WineBid if you’re patient.
100% new oak for 18 months, 14.4% ABV.
**Price Paid:** $75 on Winebid
**Nose:** Black cherry front and center. Some deeper purple and black fruit notes. Potting soil, leather, and the peach tea my mom drank growing up (weirdly specific, but it tickles my brain that way)
**Palate:** Quite high set and lightweight compared to how I remember the last one I tasted. Bright acid and redish-black fruits up front. Potting soil, sage/bay, something earthy or mineral underneath that. It’s at a really nice balance point with the tannin backed off and enough complexity to accompany the really pure US-style fruit.
**Takeaway:** I remember tasting this at Delille in 2021 and thinking that the top cab was an overextracted mess (IIRC it was 2013 or 14 vintage). This is quite elegant and if I was tasting blind, I’d likely guess something on the Left Bank from a more elegant producer. I hold that Washington is best when it tries to thread halfway between Bordeaux and Napa, and I think this nails it perfectly. 5/5
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**What is it:** 100% Cabernet sauvignon from the Grand Ciel vineyard on Red Mountain in Washington. Delille considers it to be their top site and prices it accordingly, though it can be found quite cheap on WineBid if you’re patient.
100% new oak for 18 months, 14.4% ABV.
**Price Paid:** $75 on Winebid
**Nose:** Black cherry front and center. Some deeper purple and black fruit notes. Potting soil, leather, and the peach tea my mom drank growing up (weirdly specific, but it tickles my brain that way)
**Palate:** Quite high set and lightweight compared to how I remember the last one I tasted. Bright acid and redish-black fruits up front. Potting soil, sage/bay, something earthy or mineral underneath that. It’s at a really nice balance point with the tannin backed off and enough complexity to accompany the really pure US-style fruit.
**Takeaway:** I remember tasting this at Delille in 2021 and thinking that the top cab was an overextracted mess (IIRC it was 2013 or 14 vintage). This is quite elegant and if I was tasting blind, I’d likely guess something on the Left Bank from a more elegant producer. I hold that Washington is best when it tries to thread halfway between Bordeaux and Napa, and I think this nails it perfectly. 5/5
**[Album Background for the Curious](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDKrxBOADCg):** Nocturnal by The Midnight (Synthwave/Synth-pop)