This is a Merlot with nice weight that is clean, balanced, and perfumed. This wine has beautiful, dark bramble berry characters, woven with plum, cocoa, and vanilla, and then finishing long and smooth, unless you are with the other half of our staff who feel that the fruits are more red in focus – cherries, and raspberries woven with ripened blueberries and intricate spices. Assistant winemaker Enrique Ibarra describes the spice as...more

The 2023 vintage of Merlot, might be one of our favorites. They are generous yet elegant, showy with gracefulness, and full of complexity with gentle tannins that provide a pretty frame. The nose of this wine leads with briar, blackberry, and boysenberry, accented with violets, vanilla, and a hint of graham. The mouth is round and luxurious with sweet fruit, that envelops your mouth and lingers ever after...more

This is the inaugural release of this Merlot, and it is a beauty! It is rare that we have one wine in a vintage that from fermenter to bottle is the standout. This was that wine, a Washington State Merlot reflective of when all conditions in the field and the winery were just right. In this particular vintage, luminous red characters combine with exotic floral notes and dark purple fruits like plum and blackberry. The density and complexity of flavors create a wine that is lush and dense and in perfect balance. Those who have followed us for a long time know that we have a special fondness for Merlot. It is a versatile and generous wine that deserves more appreciation than it receives, and we love it!...more

The flavor profile of this Champoux Merlot is classic Horse Heaven Hills with deep red characters, such as wild raspberries, dark red cherries, and pomegranate. These bright influences make for a luminous wine, with vibrancy and lift. And we said this about the 2022 vintage, but 2023 amplifies the idea. These luminous red characters combine with exotic floral notes and dark purple fruits like plum and blackberry. The density and complexity of flavors create a wine that is lush and deep and in perfect balance. While we thought the 2022 vintage couldn’t be topped, the 2023 might have done it! For sure...more

We have worked with Bacchus Vineyard for more vintages than any other vineyard in the state, and it has always been a pillar of our Bordeaux varieties. These old vines deliver consistent quality and expressiveness from start to finish in every vintage. The style of this wine is like the velvet glove of our Cabernets. It is lush and expressive, generous and enveloping. It completely wraps your palate in a rich, round, soft blanket of flavor...more

Bacchus Vineyard continues to be the pillar of our Bordeaux varieties. Planted in 1972, these old vines go deep. Their roots go deep, the flavors go deep, and the style is like a long velvet glove. Lush flavors of blackberry, Marion berry, and plum lead the way wrapping your palate in rich, round, mouth-coating flavor. Floral notes of lilac meld with just a suggestion of eucalyptus. The vintage of 2021 is one for the ages, as in be sure to put some away. It is perfectly suited too age...more

This Cabernet consistently expresses the aromas and flavors of black cap raspberries. Mulberries are in the same vein, with any hint of dusty earth coming through as a bit of minerality. Ripe strawberry puree and cherries are classic descriptors for fruit from the Horse Heavens, too. These bright influences make for a luminous wine, with vibrancy and lift. The fruit is sweet, dense, and mouth-watering. The tannins are fine-grained and a hint more prevalent than in the Bacchus Cabernet. The finish is...more

This Cabernet consistently expresses the aromas and flavors of deep red hinting toward blue characters. Ripe cherries, and ripe red plums are bright influences that make for a luminous wine, with vibrancy and lift, just as with the Merlot from the same vineyard. The fruit is sweet, dense, and mouth-watering. The tannins are fine-grained, not edgy, but prevelant, as with all of the 2021 Cabernets. These will be really fun to follow and enjoy as they age...more

The flavor profile of this wine is all Cabernet Sauvignon that leans slightly red, bright, floral, and exotic. Those brilliant characters bring lift to the classic expressions of the Cabernet varietal, giving this wine a broad and complex personality. Boysenberry, huckleberry (the dark purple mountain type), and ripe strawberry combine with deep plum and blueberry. An exotic perfume with a spicy note catches our attention. This wine has excellent structure with plenty of beautiful, silky tannins and enough richness and density to bring it into full balance...more

If our Bacchus Cab is the velvet glove of our Cabernets, the Heart of the Hill 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. 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...more

The focus of Heart of the Hill is a flavor profile that leads with slightly red, bright, and floral. Red currant and huckleberry are rounded out by blueberry and bing cherry. The mouthfeel is lush and mouthwatering. This wine has plenty of structure that is filled in with depth and complexity. An overnight on the counter reveals that it blooms with time, a wonderful indicator of aging potential...more               

To produce this wine, we select from all of our Cabernet lots those barrels that have softer tannins and a more gentle structure. We don’t go outside of our usual vineyard sources to purchase lower-priced fruit to make this wine. Instead, we blend together the barrels that are more approachable earlier in the aging process. The resulting Cabernet blend is a full-bodied, generous wine, with richness and complexity that over delivers quality for its price...more