2009 Quilceda Creek Cabernet Sauvignon Palengat Vineyard

Good full ruby. Aromas of blackcurrant and licorice. Rich, deep and concentrated, with an almost Kahlua-like liqueur quality to its dense, exotic flavors of cassis, dark chocolate, mocha and orange peel. Very rich blend with an impressively long finish featuring fine tannins and hints of licorice pastille, dark berries, sexy Taransaud spices and black walnut. From vines planted at 3 x 6 feet, according to Paul Golitzin, 'about as dense as it gets in this state.' (ST)

From a site adjacent to Champoux and Phinny Hill Vineyards, the Quilceda Creek 2009 Palengat Vineyard incorporates 8% Cabernet Franc and 6% Merlot with its Cabernet Sauvignon. (The inaugural 2006 vintage was labeled “Cabernet Sauvignon.”) Bittersweet herbs and roasted nuttiness – suggesting walnut, hickory, and pecan – along with piquancy of fruit pit offer counterpoint to dominate themes of confitured cassis and mulberry, cocoa powder, and honey in a wine that’s liqueur-like and torrefied, yet preserves the same uncanny sense of primary juiciness displayed by other wines in the present distinguished collection. As it takes on air, a greater sense of complexity and animation emerges vis-a-vis the corresponding generic bottling. This wine’s prodigious strength is in its sheer richness, depth, and reach, but it also incorporates a saliva-liberating salinity equally essential in guaranteeing that something this sweetly ripe and full-bodied doesn’t tire the taster, but instead compels repeated sips. I’m confident it harbors at least a dozen years of impressive potential. Quilceda Creek’s nearly quarter-century long history and success in showcasing Washington State’s potential with Cabernet Sauvignon scarcely require recounting at this juncture as both that history and the resultant wines have achieved near-legendary status. It’s worth noting, though, the extent of the Golitzins’ association with Champoux Vineyard in the Horse Heaven Hills (which also happens to be where I recently met and tasted with them.) Fruit from the Mercer Ranch already played a significant role in the course of Quilceda Creek’s first two decades, and when this property became Champoux, the Golitzins acquired a 21% share (a decision Alex Golitzin calls “the greatest thing that ever happened” to Quilceda Creek.) With the replanting of most of Champoux’s Cabernet following severe frost damage in 2010, the vineyard mix of Quilceda Creek’s releases will necessarily change significantly for the next several years and likely diminish somewhat in overall volume. Powerful Cabernets from top sites in Red Mountain – notably Ciel du Cheval, Klipsun and Tapteil – have also been constants from the early years of this winery, and it is in that viticultural neighborhood, and in collaboration with Ciel du Cheval proprietor Jim Holmes, that Alex and Paul Golitzin planted their first estate vineyard in 2001, whose fruit they subsequently determined cried-out for separate bottling – a judgment rendered once again on the wine (dubbed Palengat – Jeanette Golitzin’s maiden name) that issued from a high-density vineyard acquired in 2006 adjacent to Champoux. Fermentations – utilizing several yeast strains – can last anywhere from 14-50 days, explains Alex Golitzin. “Some lots we push through fermentation; others we slow down,” part of a process he and his son see as guaranteeing that no matter how sweetly and seamlessly ripe their wines (and those are certainly two ineluctable adjectives for them!) “you don’t get a sense of sur-maturite.” At least a third of what is vinified ends up being declassified into a bottling labeled simply as “Red Wine,” and Golitzin notes that “this selection is made from the get-go, during primary fermentation when we’re grading (what’s in) every fermentor (of which there are 38) by taste. After malolactic, we do the same thing by fermentor – not (afterward) by barrel, because (assessing) barrels get(s) tricky. One might all of a sudden taste good but that’s not a reliable guide.” (Press wine, insofar as it is utilized, also ends up here.) Given that all, save for this “second wine,” see 100% new barrels, it’s worth noting that most of those are crafted expressively for the winery and include a major share of five-year-aged barriques from Taransaud similar to those from that tonnelier that have in the past couple of years begun to find their way in small numbers into other cellars worldwide. All of the wines spend just under two years in barrel, and those of the 2009 collection finished with just over 15% alcohol. Tel. (360) 568-2389