2020 Cabernet Sauvignon, Heart of the Hill

Heart of the Hill was the third Cabernet vineyard that we brought into our lineup, and we did so for two reasons. The first was that the region is known consistently for its big, bold tannic red wines. The second was our friendship with the Williams family. They were pioneers in the region and we met them in the early 90’s when we first came to Washington State.

The vintage of 2020 was generally a warm year, with a fairly consistent growing season. There were two unusual weather events, but neither had any impact on the harvest and quality of the fruit, although they had our attention! The first was in mid September, when a ten day stint of wildfire smoke came in from Oregon and blanketed much of the region. Luckily, the smoke didn’t penetrate the fruit but rather acted as a cloud layer that briefly paused ripening. The second event, a significant freeze, brought harvest to a close on October 25th. At that point, all of our fruit was already in the winery, and so the impact was not an issue for us.

As with all of our red varieties, we sort very carefully by hand on the way in to the destemmer and also on the output side. For the style of wine that we make, it is crucial that as little green stem material as possible remains in the fruit, since, during fermentation, those green and edgy characters can become part of the flavor profile of the wine. Additionally, fruit from this region can be more tannic in general, and so the types of tannins we are looking for are those that are smooth and integrated, not green and angular. Our sorting is done entirely by hand. While we could accomplish this through technology, we love the camaraderie of being at the sorting table with friends and family.

The focus of Heart of the Hill is a flavor profile that leans slightly red, bright, and floral. Boysenberry and blue huckleberry combine with deep plum, a hint of eucalyptus, and sweet vanilla. If our Bacchus Cab is the velvet glove of our Cabernets, this wine is the boxing glove. The nose is expressive and exotic, evolving continuously like graceful fancy footwork and then completing the expression with the big, bold, fine-grained tannin that is so common to Red Mountain.