2013 Quilceda Creek Cabernet Sauvignon Columbia Valley

The 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon is lighter in color and has a subdued nose at first. After getting the glass spinning, the wine reveals its secrets with sweet oak tones, dark red fruit and wilted red flowers. The Cabernet is juicy with layers of redcurrants and cassis as it shows defined notions of black plum and dark cherry skin in the glass. Full-bodied, the wine bursts with kaleidoscopic sensations, boasting power and precision that shares many of the same key elements of cult Napa Cabernet bottlings and worthy of the coveted triple digits. With impeccable weight and texture, the wine offers up an excellent palate with purity of fruit flavors and silky French oak essences that wind down in the mouth, with impeccably balanced tannins across the mid-palate. Seeing the progression of Quilceda Creek over the 20-year vertical tasting, I am completely surprised by how well the 2013 is showing, as it has had plenty of time to harmonize in the bottle and round out its edges. I suspect this bottle will continue to drink phenomenally for the next year or two before entering its chrysalis stage, where the wine will close down for three to four years, emerging a mature wine with even more elegance and seductive tertiary elements. Bravo!