Quilceda Creek CVR 2016 (750ML)

93 JD / 92 WA / 90 VM

The entry-level 2016 Columbia Valley CVR is a beauty and well worth purchasing, particularly as it drinks well right out of the gate where the top cuvee benefit from 2-4 years of bottle age. Full-bodied, ripe, and sexy, with terrific notes of kirsch, black cherry liqueur, lead pencil shavings, and graphite, it has plenty of tannins as well as terrific balance and elegance. - Jeb. Dunnuck

A blend of 87% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Merlot and 3% each of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, the 2016 CVR Columbia Valley Red Wine wafts from the glass with tones of rich and ripe red fruit with a soft tartness and subtle cedar spice on the nose. Full-bodied, the wine is sprinkled with sweet spice on the palate, giving way to a ripe tannic structure, and it concludes with a long finish with nuances of subtle dark cherry and elegant oak spice. - Wine Advocate

Dark red-ruby. Musky currant, plum, licorice, herbs and tobacco leaf on the nose, along with a hint of celery seed and obvious oak. At once firm and smooth on the palate; more black fruit than red in character, with dominant flavors of boysenberry and dark plum complicated by licorice, herbs and oak spices. Offers a fine-grained texture for a wine made from declassified barrels, and less of a range of ripeness than usual, perhaps owing to the longer hang time afforded by this vintage. Finishes with a solid spine of dusty, building tannins that mostly avoid dryness. Shows less of the black olive component demonstrated by the 2015. (aged in 60% new French oak; 6,675 cases made from declassified barrels) - Stephen Tanzer, Vinous Media