Quilceda Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 2015 (750ML)

99 JD / 97 DE / 96 JS / 96 WA / 96 VM

The flagship is the 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon, 100% Cabernet Sauvignon mostly from Champoux with the balance from Palengat and Wallula vineyards. Crème de cassis, graphite, black licorice, unsmoked tobacco, and hints of chocolate and emerge from this beauty and it continues to gain depth and nuance with time in the glass. Full-bodied, deep, and layered with an incredible purity and elegance on the palate, it's already accessible but has more than enough tannin, depth, and balance to evolve for two decades or more. - Jeb Dunnuck

Quilceda Creek, founded in 1978, was the state’s 12th winery and today arguably its best Cabernet producer. The 2015 vintage was the warmest ever in Washington, but this superb bottling (mainly from the Champoux Vineyard) has remarkable acidity to support the well-extracted, mouth-coating blackberry, cassis, smoky tarmac, cocoa, earth and high-toned kirsch notes, with a cherry candy finish. Aged 20 months in new French oak. - Deacanter

Washington State has been on an undeniable roll since 2012. The terrific 2014s, which will be hitting the shelves soon, and the upcoming 2015s, are not going to break this trend. The 2015 vintage will be another terrific vintage for the region. - Jeb Dunnuck, Wine Advocate

This sets itself apart with concentration and poise, delivering the layers of fruit depth that great cabernet wines possess. The palate's impressively built on layers of ripe, fleshy fruit and superbly cut tannins. Holds long and regal. This is great wine. Drink or hold for 10+ years. - James Suckling

A powerful wine that bears the stamp of the vintage, the 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon offers up aromas of minty crème de cassis, blackberries, dark chocolate and spice, framed by a lavish application of toasty new oak. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, ample and heady, with a generous core of ripe, liqueur-like fruit, a fine-grained chassis of tannins and a long, heavily oak-inflected finish. To hold the estate to its own high standards, after the more elegant and complete 2014, the 2015 vintage of Quilceda's flagship bottling feels a bit more overtly high-octane and marked by its time in new wood, and I don't think it will ever be as graceful. But it's a lusty, expressive Cabernet Sauvignon that will drink well for a decade or more. - William Kelley, Wine Advocate

(72% of this wine came from Champoux vineyard): Dark red-ruby. Pungent aromas of ripe dark berries, licorice and cedary oak. Wonderfully suave and fine-grained, boasting terrific concentration, intensity and energy to its dark berry and African violet flavors. This very suave Cabernet finishes with terrific cocoa-powder length and substantial but refined mounting tannins. Paul Golitzin told me that he always aims to get two tons of fruit per acre--"either by nature or through crop thinning." And he noted that his family now has full viticultural control over all of their properties. (15.2% on label, like all of the Quilceda Creek '15s) Stephen Tanzer - Vinous Media

The 2015 growing season was the warmest ever recorded in Washington State. We achieved sufficient shoot growth early in the season to provide the fruit shading during the hottest June days. We have also installed overhead misters in all our vineyard sites to cool the fruit, if needed, to produce the finest grapes we can grow, regardless of extreme weather. Almost all of our Cabernet Sauvignon achieved its final ripening under perfect, mid-70 degree Fahrenheit temperatures in October. The results were very small and concentrated berries full of flavor and freshness. - Winery 

Winemaker Paul Golitzin comments:

The 2015 Quilceda Creek Cabernet Sauvignon Columbia Valley is a truly majestic wine with great purity, class and breed. 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from the Champoux, Lake Wallula, Palengat, and Wallula Gap vineyards, this wine was aged 20 months in new French oak. The wealth of blackberry, blueberry, and black cherry fruit is remarkable, with hints of spring flowers, cocoa powder, roasted herbs, forest floor and minerals. This wine will have a large drinking window due to the seamless integration of all its elements. Drink now through 2037.