2013 Corliss Cabernet Sauvignon
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Tasting notes
The 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon is moody in the glass, slowly evolving with nuances of blackberry, mocha, sage and mint. This is cool-toned and sleek, with silky textures and medium-bodied weight, taking on a cocoa bitterness toward the close—like biting into an extra-dark chocolate bar. The 2013 finishes with a mentholated freshness and gritty tannins, coming across as both structured and remarkably fresh for a warm-vintage wine.
Critic scores
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Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
Eric Guido, Vinous
More reviews and scores
Another incredible effort, the 2013 Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon has a touch more freshness, as well as complexity, over the straight Colombia Valley blend. Black currants, graphite, leafy herbs and underbrush all flow to a full-bodied, ripe, beautifully textured, balanced red that has notable freshness and a great finish.
(aged in 70% new oak for 28 months; this bottling will be labeled Red Mountain beginning with the 2014 vintage): Bright red-ruby. Extremely primary, pure aromas and flavors of inky cassis, blueberry, licorice and minerals. Tight and high-pitched in the mouth, displaying outstanding depth, energy and minerality but extremely closed in the early going. This huge wine finishes with chewy, late-arriving, toothdusting tannins that will require cellaring, even after the wine is released in the fall of 2018. Corliss has increased its use of tight-grained Saint-Martin barrels in this wine, and it will need a while to absorb the oak. Distinctly cool, even a bit medicinal, for the 2013 vintage, this is likely to be very long-lived. Winemaker Andre Trio told me he added a bit of Petit Verdot "for back-palate texture and finer-grained tannins."