2014 Betz Family Clos de Betz
Market price
Buying options
Tasting notes
Including the highest percentage of Merlot ever, the 2014 Clos de Betz checks in as 71% Merlot, 19% Cabernet Sauvignon, and the balance Petit Verdot. It offers a beautiful bouquet of cassis, licorice, violets, and earthy, herbal notes as well as a medium to full-bodied, incredibly elegant style on the palate. It’s tight and closed, yet has remarkable purity and depth. Give bottles 2-3 years of bottle age. Owned by the Griessel family since 2011, Betz Family Winery still has Washington State’s incredible ambassador of Bob Betz firmly involved in the winery, with the wines made by the talented Louis Skinner since 2013. This is an undeniable reference point estate for the Washington State and the wines go from strength to strength. Today, they are at the top of the hierarchy in just about every vintage. In addition, while it would be easy to sit back and maintain the status quo at an established estate like this, they continue to push for improvements in quality at every level, purchasing an optical sorting machine in 2015, creating a second wine, doing an even more strict selection for their top cuvées, and experimenting with stems in the ferments as well as with different sizes (and types) of vessels in their vinification and aging regimes. This is a terrific, world-class estate that readers need to try, and both the 2014s and 2015s are incredible wines.
Critic scores
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
Jeb Dunnuck
More reviews and scores
Possessing the highest percentage of Merlot ever for the cuvee (at least until the 2015), the 2014 Clos de Betz is 71% Merlot, 19% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Petit Verdot that’s just under half from Red Mountain fruit and the rest from Columbia Valley sites. Notes of cassis, licorice, damp herbs, chocolate and earth all flow to a medium to full-bodied, supple, elegant and incredibly polished 2014 that needs 2-3 years of bottle age and will keep for 10-15 years.
Bright, dark red-ruby. Alluring floral lift to the aromas of blackberry, cassis, Bing cherry, sweet spices and anise. Sweet, plush wine with great sex appeal to its intense, pliant flavors of amarena cherry, flint and spicy oak. Really remarkable--and not at all stewed--for Merlot from a hot year; Betz noted that he picked these vines early, "with tension and vitality." Finishes very long and smooth, with suave, perfectly supported tannins dusting the front teeth. A great, velvety Merlot-based wine from Washington. Betz adds some Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot to wine "to provide more structure, nuance and color."