2017 Cabernet Sauvignon, Champoux Vineyard MAGNUM

From Winemaker, John Abbott:

Champoux Vineyard is one of the iconic vineyards in Washington State, and we are excited to be working with the fruit. This is our second vintage and it is a beautiful follow-up to last year. It has such a distinguished character. The vintage was a complicated one, combining cool temperatures early, hot temperatures during the growing season, and a ‘cloud cover’ of smoke. These factors contributed to ripening conditions that were on again, off again. However, in the end the wines from 2017 are special creatures, and the vintage will go down as an excellent one, even though it challenged us to some degree. Our normal release schedule would have had the 2017 Cabernets coming out in the fall of 2021, but if a wine is not ready to be bottled, we won’t bottle it. And if it isn’t ready to be released, we will give it more time. For all of our 2017 Cabernets, an extra year of bottle age has been the right decision.

We have a long history with Horse Heavens AVA fruit, as Champoux Vineyard is just a short tractor ride from Canoe Ridge Vineyard, where we started our adventures in Washington State wine. For this reason, the flavor profile of this wine is so familiar, it is comforting. The nose is elegant, bright, and luminous with black raspberries, dark cherries, and mocha. Sweet red fruits–strawberry, cherry, and raspberry– add lift to the palate. Orange zest, spice, dusty minerals, and a hint of jalapeño are just a few in a long list of characters that are part of this complex wine. The finish is long-lived, and the combination of fine-grained tannins and acidity makes this wine quite age-worthy. It will also benefit from decanting in its youth.