2018 Betz Family Cabernet Sauvignon Pere de Famille
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Tasting notes
Acting similarly to the 2015, the 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Père de Famille is dense and chewy and will still need additional time for the wine to tell its secrets. Dense, chewy and firm with a tannic edge, the full-bodied wine is seemingly closed down. The wine will no doubt be gorgeous with time, but its generous and lively nature will show better with more time in the cellar. Be patient; this one is a creeper, yet it will outlast the 2015 bottling.
Critic scores
Jancis Robinson MW
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
More reviews and scores
88% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Petit Verdot, and 2% Merlot. Cassis, a powdery fruitiness – like freeze-dried strawberries and raspberries, earthy and herbal nose. The palate is dense but balanced by lean, fresh acidity that carries the long finish. (SCJ)
Incorporating 10% Petit Verdot and 2% Merlot from a mix of sites in the Columbia Valley, the 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Père De Famille reveals a healthy ruby/purple hue to go with beautiful cassis fruits interwoven with notions of dried rose petals, violets, cedary spice, and chalky minerality. Medium to full-bodied, reasonably well concentrated, yet elegant and beautifully balanced, it opens up nicely with time in the glass and will benefit from 2-4 years of bottle age and keep for 20 years. The style at Betz has changed subtly over the past handful of years, with winemaker Louis Skinner imparting his own style. The wines today are slightly less concentrated, and the deep, inky purple color preferred by the previous winemaker, Bob Betz, has been replaced with a more vivid ruby/purple hue that’s not always opaque. I love the overall balance of the wines today and I think taken as a whole, the new style emphasizes elegance and age-worthiness over sheer richness and power. Most of these 2018s should be given at least a few years in the cellar and will have broad drink windows. Louis is one of the most intelligent and inquisitive winemakers out there and he’s doing a fabulous job with these wines.
Bright red-ruby. Deep, precise scents of dark raspberry, licorice, bitter chocolate, menthol and violet. Much denser and riper on entry than the Clos de Betz, then penetrating and complex in the middle palate, delivering deep, intense red and darker berry flavors complicated by wild herbs, cocoa powder, minerals and menthol. Highly concentrated, energetic, deep and very long, with firm dusty tannins perfectly buffered by the wine's intensity of fruit. Showing some of the savory minerality of the 2017, this very suave wine is made for cellaring even if it's balanced from the start. But with limited easy sweetness, this solidly structured Cabernet Sauvignon is not quite as generous as the Heart of the Hill, at least in the early going.