Walla Walla Valley, Oregon/Washington, USA
Zoom event with Drew Bledsoe and Josh McDaniels. Vertical from ‘07, ‘14, ‘15, ‘16, ‘17, ‘17 estate, and ‘18. All were exceptionally smooth and silky with good depth of fruit. Notes on the ‘18: 90% CS, 5% Malbec, 5% Merlot. Least favorite of the night. Still a good wine but perhaps a bit too young, or just different enough from the others that I liked ones with a bit more age. This wine had a little more density than the others and perhaps a little more earth and graphite coming through that masked the fruit. It still had the classic doubleback elegance of the others but I felt we were not seeing this wine’s true expression. It only had about 1 hour in the glass and perhaps I need to pull another bottle, decant for a few hours and see what it does.
Zoom event with Drew Bledsoe and Josh McDaniels. Vertical from ‘07, ‘14, ‘15, ‘16, ‘17, ‘17 estate, and ‘18. All were exceptionally smooth and silky with good depth of fruit. Notes on the ‘18: 90% CS, 5% Malbec, 5% Merlot. Least favorite of the night. Still a good wine but perhaps a bit too young, or just different enough from the others that I liked ones with a bit more age. This wine had a little more density than the others and perhaps a little more earth and graphite coming through that masked the fruit. It still had the classic doubleback elegance of the others but I felt we were not seeing this wine’s true expression. It only had about 1 hour in the glass and perhaps I need to pull another bottle, decant for a few hours and see what it does.
Feb 20th, 2021
