2009 Chaleur Estate 6.0L Eng

RED MOUNTAIN AVA

This wine showcases a rich and powerful vintage. The nose unfolds in layers of red, black and blueberry fruits highlighted with plums, allspice, anise, and jasmine. There is also an intriguing element reminiscent of a toasty, flaky piecrust to the wine along with pepper and cocoa aromas.  On the palate, the complexity continues with the addition of raspberries, red currants, cedar, pie cherries reinforced with more plums, anise and cocoa.  Every sip is wrapped in accessible and savory tannins.  There is a beautiful yet youthful balance to the wine with a seamless finish.

"Comprising 68% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Merlot, 7% Cabernet Franc, and 2% Petit Verdot – sourced from Ciel du Cheval and Klipsun Vineyards – the 2009 Chaleur Estate red is dominated by lusciously ripe morello cherry, with accents of peat, tobacco, licorice, allspice, and tactilely sizzling cinnamon. Plush though with underlying chew, it finishes with an invigoration and energy one scarcely anticipates from these grape varieties much less in such a warm vintage. Upchurch suggests that most of the tannin in a wine like this comes from the seeds and that the proclivity in Washington of seeds to truly ripen to nutty crunchiness (granted that precisely in 2009 this proved challenging) is what makes for wine with this sort of amazingly vibrant and stimulatingly tannic personality. And, he believes, incidentally, that punch-downs as opposed to pump-overs make for more advantageous extraction that preserves these virtues."

----Wine Advocate #204, Dec 2012, David Schildknecht

Varietals

• 68% Cabernet Sauvignon
• 23% Merlot  
• 7% Cabernet Franc  
• 2% Petit Verdot

 Vineyards

• 41% Ciel du Cheval Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon       
• 27% Klipsun Cabernet Sauvignon
• 23% Klipsun Merlot 
•  7% Ciel du Cheval Cabernet Franc
• 2% Ciel du Cheval Petit Verdot           
   

100% Red Mountain AVA