Scott Kahn

9.7

Deep garnet in color with a nice bouquet of mint and an old closet! Eucalyptus and herbaceous notes support dry blackberry brambles amid nicely evolved tannic structure. This wine remains at its peak of expression. — 4 hours ago

Paul J

9.6

Happy Thanksgiving! 1hr+ decant and needed a ton more. Definitely decant this for 3 hours. Wine was dark red with bourbon, alcohol, and cedar on the nose. Over the course of dinner and the next few hours it changed multiple times. It finally finished with a lovely combination of dark cherries, bramble, cedar, and rustic flavors. Medium plus depth and finish. Was awesome! — 5 months ago

with Brooke

Tyler Felous

9.2

Dark, inky color - lot of oak coming through on the nose and on the palette. Beautiful now but still so young. Oak needs to integrate further. — 8 months ago

Wulf Losee

9.0

2020 opened March 2024. I previously reviewed the 2018 — which was a fantastic wine which I gave a 9.8! Unfortunately the 2020 is not nearly as interesting. After decanting, it opened up quickly and faded. Still, it’s not a bad wine. It’s just not as great as its predecessor was. Mint and licorice on the nose. Candied cherries and sage on the front of the pallet. It has a medium body, but the tannic structure is kind of wooly — Feels like I’m tasting a cotton ball. But it has a long finish with strong mineral notes that remind me of volcanics soils. There’s a faint, creosote aftertaste on the finish , though. don’t get me wrong, it’s very drinkable — but it would need a big rare juicy steak to cover up that annoying creosote finish, and I don’t have one available at the moment. — a month ago

Byron Hewett

9.3

Made by the new winemaking team that came over from Quilceda Creek. A Beauty! — 7 months ago

Wulf Losee

9.6

I’m going to leave my original review up, but if you want my final review of the this wine, scroll down to the bottom.

My original rating was 9.1– Pine and a hint of leather on the nose. Currents on the front of the palate. Medium tannic structure—but not much going on on the mid palate. Ends with a lot of tart high notes on the finish. There is a pleasant mineral astringency that lingers after one swallows. I rather like that. I’m going to let this sit for a half an hour to see if the tartness of the finish mellows out a bit. There’s not much here to open up though. this is a perfectly fine wine, but it’s not QC’s best. Slightly disappointed.

Update: after being left in a decanter for an hour and a half (I got distracted) the fruit on the front and the mineral finish faded, leaving the astringency at the back of the palate with tannins that were unable to balance the bitterness. This is a wine that’s best guzzled quickly [at least if you intend to drink the wine today— see my further comments below].

Updated rating, two days later: 9.6!
Oh my! Because this wine didn’t seem very exceptional, I put the remainder in an empty plastic water bottle. I squeezed out most of the air and I capped it and left it for two days. I certainly wasn’t expecting much when I drank it tonight, But it went from OK to fantastic! Bouquet was 100 percent leather. The fruit had faded on the front, but the tannins from front to back are now intriguingly complex. Lots of earth, and mineral notes all along the palate, and the finish is longer. Yummy!

The moral is don’t bother to decant this sucker. Open the bottle, at least 24 hours before you intend to drink it, and do the French thing of pouring off half a glass and then re-corking the bottle. Truly an amazing transformation!
— a year ago

Tom Kobylarz

8.9

Decant...for like 6 hours! Upside to a 92-93 likely.. — a month ago

Frank Artale

9.1

Too often this,wine is drunk at release. Just a little patience goes a long way. At 7 years the primary black and red fruit is still there with dried plums showing up along with cedar cocoa tar anise. Tannins still there so can go along a bit longer bit why wait — 2 months ago

Byron Hewett

9.4

Made by the new winemaking team that came over from Quilceda Creek. Absolutely gorgeous!! Best wines I have had from Washington. They are quickly moving up! — 7 months ago

Joe DAscoli

9.3

Solid wine and gave quilceda creek a run for its money — a year ago