Plenty of cassis, damp earth, lead pencil, and leafy, tobacco-laced herbal notes emerge from the 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon Columbia Valley, which is medium to full-bodied and has beautiful purity, fine tannins, and a great finish. It's another Bordeaux style Cabernet Sauvignon from this estate that can be drunk today or cellared for over a decade. The Columbia Valley release is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon that was brought up all in French oak, 25% being new. There are a whopping 67,200 cases produced, and it's a smoking wine!

The aromas offer notes of black cherry, plum, spice, coffee and herbs. Well-balanced coffee, chocolate and cherry flavors follow. The structure and balance are impressive, with the acidity upping the interest. It delivers a whole lot of quality and value.

Bright, dark red-ruby. Cassis, peppery herbs, tobacco leaf and graphite on the Old World nose. Firm, bright and nicely concentrated, with good sugar/acid snap and intensity to its black fruit, licorice, menthol, bitter chocolate and spice flavors. Dry but not quite austere, as there's good fruit sweetness lurking. A serious spine of building tannins gives this wine the structure to evolve and harmonize with bottle aging. In fact, this distinctly firm wine is a bit less easy to drink than the'16 was last year.

With a dense, dark-fruited core, the 2017 Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon has aromas of blackberry and cassis with an herbaceous undertone and soft dusty character. Medium to full-bodied, the wine has a tight mouthfeel with grainy tannins that follow a condensed dark-fruit profile. Lingering with a tight tannic edge, subtle baking spices and bitter dark chocolate flavors remain on the finish.

Solidly built and precise, featuring dark plum and fresh thyme accents, finishing with a nip of tannins. Drink now through 2027. 5,600 cases made.