2018 | Force Majeure | Vineyards Red Mountain Estate Cabernet Sauvignon

Impressive for its richness and deep structure, this red screams Red Mountain, offering compelling blackberry, crushed rock and espresso tones that build tension toward firm tannins.

Reviews:

• Wine Advocate: Take one sniff of the 2018 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, and you know it’s Red Mountain—the wine opens with a particular dustiness commonly associated with Red Mountain terroir. Aromas of dusty plum, black cherry skin, currant and cassis are lifted by dusty purple flower and elegant oak spices of cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla. Full-bodied, the wine is generous on the palate with ripe yet slightly rustic tones of dust-covered berries and a beautifully framed structure with succulent tannins. The wine ends with a long, gripping finish and is food-friendly now but will do well with two to three more years of cellar aging. The wine fermented with native yeast and saw 80% new French oak. It’s a beauty.

• Jeb Dunnuck: The 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Red Mountain Estate is much more dense, tannic, backward wine compared to the Walla Walla Estate release. Its deep purple/plum color is followed by a masculine bouquet of crushed rocks, tobacco, iodine, and lead pencil. This carries to a full-bodied Red Mountain Cabernet with gorgeous overall balance, ripe yet building tannins, an undeniable sense of minerality, and a blockbuster finish. Possessing a liquid rock-like minerality (it seems to have been filtered through a bed of rocks), it's mostly educational at this young age and deserves 4-5 years of bottle age. It should keep for 2-3 decades in cold cellars.

Producer Information

It is both passion and obsessive attention to detail that push Force Majeure to raise the standard for Washington winegrowing. Inspired by the vineyards of Bordeaux, Hermitage, Priorat, and Cote Rotie, we challenged existing viticultural practices and embarked on an ambitious plan to pioneer the very first vineyard on the steep, upper slopes of Red Mountain. This Herculean effort involved the careful matching of varietal and clonal selections, trellising and irrigation to the nine distinct soil types formed by the ancient Missoula floods, winds and volcanic activity. The outcome is a vineyard articulated into many small "micro-blocks," to meet the management demands of this unique and dynamic site. Due to the rough, rocky nature of the acreage and elevations ranging from 960 to 1,230 feet, mechanization is virtually impossible in the upper portion of Force Majeure, requiring true "farming by hand." Yet the lower blocks of the vineyard are comprised of deep, well-drained Warden soils. Thus, the diversity of our vineyard results in a versatility that allows us to grow a variety of compelling fruit characterized by stunning intensity, depth and concentration, complex flavors and fine tannins. We nurture a variety of Bordeaux and Rhone varietals at this special site and look forward to sharing, quite literally, the "fruits of our labor" with you.

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