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2016 Quilceda Creek Cabernet Sauvignon Galitzine

2016 Quilceda Creek Cabernet Sauvignon Galitzine

98+ JD

Featured Review
From a site on Red Mountain, the 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Galitzine is a deeper, richer, more mineral-laced red and has a huge nose of dark chocolate, smoked earth, graphite, black licorice, and black fruits. It’s full-bodied, has tons of concentration and depth, as well as building tannins, yet it still stays seamless and elegant on the palate, with an incredible texture. It’s another full-bore, powerful, brilliant wine from this team that’s going to benefit from short term cellaring and cruise for two decades. Jeb Dunnuck

Jeb Dunnuck | 98+ JD

Critic Reviews

From a site on Red Mountain, the 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Galitzine is a deeper, richer, more mineral-laced red and has a huge nose of dark chocolate, smoked earth, graphite, black licorice, and black fruits. It’s full-bodied, has tons of concentration and depth, as well as building tannins, yet it still stays seamless and elegant on the palate, with an incredible texture. It’s another full-bore, powerful, brilliant wine from this team that’s going to benefit from short term cellaring and cruise for two decades.

Jeb Dunnuck | 98+ JD
Red fruited and expressive, the 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Galitzine Vineyard opens with the classic Red Mountain rusticity on the nose along with rich and elegant dark red fruits. Full-bodied, the palate has a crunchy minerality and firm tannins that will mellow in time. The focus here is clearly on the fruit, with the impressively well-integrated 100% new French oak lending seductive baking spices accents to the dark cherry and black raspberry expressions, followed by a slight tartness on the finish. This will do best after a few years in the cellar and will go for a decade or two. I look forward to revisiting this bottling over the next decade. Absolutely stunning! Only 1,050 cases made.

Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 96 RP
Bright ruby-red. Inky aromas of boysenberry, cassis, blackberry and herbs convey a slightly medicinal quality. Medium-to-full-bodied, penetrating and still youthfully closed but already quite juicy thanks to fresh acidity, showing a strong Red Mountain blueberry character and underlying notes of minerals and bitter chocolate. Finishes with substantial tongue-dusting tannins that call for a good five or six years of cellaring. This distinctly reserved wine is a bit more sharply delineated but less creamy than the estate's flagship Cabernet, perhaps due to the cool late-summer weather in 2016; only time will tell if it's that wine's equal for sheer class. (3.86 pH; from a relatively hot, windswept site on nutrient-deficient soil that ripens its small, thick-skinned berries early, with good acid retention; beginning with this vintage, the wine has been aged in 100% new Darnajou barrels)

Vinous Media | 94+ VM
From Quilceda’s 17-acre high-density Red Mountain planting devoted entirely to Clone 8 cabernet sauvignon, this wine is a masculine expression of Red Mountain, with its windborne herb scents of wild sage, cigar box, cedar and smoke, its concentrated fruit limned with a dark espresso accent. The wine tastes as if a compote of dark berry fruit was drizzled with olive oil, the textures powerful, gripping, flecked with fine soil tannins that feel granular and long. This is a baby.

Wine & Spirits | 94 W&S

Wine Details for 2016 Quilceda Creek Cabernet Sauvignon Galitzine

Type of Wine Washington Red
Varietal Cabernet Sauvignon : It is recognized worldwide, referred to as “king of grapes” and has easily become the most popular grape variety in the world. Cabernet Sauvignon has seemingly taken the world by storm. It has seen exponential growth and popularity in American and around the world over the past thirty years. The phrase “Cabernet is king,” is a common maxim in the world of wine. Cabernet Sauvignon wine has become so popular that when being referred to can be recognized by simple slang, such as “Cab” or “Cabernet. It might appear simple, straightforward and easily understood; yet, interestingly remains an enigma, which has both baffled and excited oenologists since its discovery.

The exact origin and circumstances of this world-altering event are still enigmatic; however, at the end of the 20th century, UC Davis Scientists (John Bowers and Carole Meredith) were able to solve part of the mystery using DNA fingerprinting technology that proved Cabernet Sauvignon to be the offspring of a surprising spontaneous crossing of Bordeaux varietals, Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc. By the 18th century there were already records of Cabernet Sauvignon being well-established on the west side of the Gironde Estuary (Left Bank) in the Medoc and Graves.

Although tremendously popular in California and what seems to have become the identity of Napa Valley winemaking, Cabernet Sauvignon’s birth took place in the Bordeaux region of southwest France by fortuitous unification. Whereas Napa Valley experienced a winemaking renaissance during the 1970’s and 1980s (greatly due to the 1976 Judgement of Paris) quality wine from the Cabernet Sauvignon grape has been produced in the Medoc, on the Left Bank of Bordeaux for over 400 years.

Cabernet Sauvignon’s first recorded plantings in California can be traced back to the 1850’s when Antoine Delmas, a French nurseryman, brought French vines (including one called ‘Cabrunet’) to the Santa Clara Valley. Early cultivation suffered due to obscurity of the varietal and improper planting in inhospitable soil. It wasn’t until pioneers such as Robert Mondavi, Randy Dunn and Warren Winiarski with their amazing foresight and understanding of terroir, would the grape variety finally find its niche in California winemaking.

Cabernet Sauvignon thrives in warm climates moderated by a cooling marine influence. It is perfectly attuned to gravel-based soils with good drainage. Whether on flat land or a hillside, the Cabernet Sauvignon grape flourishes in proper climates and terroir, producing incredible yields. The thick grapevine is extremely vigorous allowing it to exploit its natural host. Its distinctive small, black berries (reminiscent of blueberries) adhere firmly to the stalk and are capable of a very long “hang time.” These berries are extremely concentrated, producing intensely flavored fruit. The thick skins of the grape are characterized as having highly astringent flavor, high tannin, acidity and dark color. Coincidentally, the variety has a special affinity for oak, which helps soften the bitterness.

Today, the Noble Bordeaux varietal of Cabernet Sauvignon is planted on 340,000 hectares (741,300 acres) of vineyards across the earth’s surface. From Sicily to Sonoma, Chile to Bordeaux, South Africa to Napa. It has found symbiosis in terroir hotspots that mimic that of the Medoc and Napa Valley. Cabernet Sauvignon’s globetrotting has allowed the grape variety to take root all over the world, captivating its inhabitants and influencing winemaking. This serendipitous marriage between Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc centuries ago, which offered to the world its progeny, has changed the landscape of winegrowing, winemaking and the face of the entire wine market forever. It has influenced blending, changed civilization and has cultivated a place for itself in today’s world… the very pinnacle.

Country US : As one of the most prolific and innovative wine regions in the world, America is a joy to explore. Most wine connoisseurs will agree that the nation's finest and most compelling wines are being produced today, which means that we have front-row seats to one of the most inspirational stories in wine history. While other regions tend to focus on specific wine styles and have somewhat strict rules as to which varietals you could grow, areas like California have few such restrictions in place. As a result, creative visionaries behind America's most reputable estates have been able to develop compelling, unique, and innovative styles, with a level of terroir expression that rivals even France's largest giants.
Region Washington : While California definitely owns the spotlight when it comes to excellent American wines, Washington winemakers should certainly not be underestimated. While their traditional focus was set firmly on refreshing, illustrious white wines, they've adopted French red varietals like Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. Since then, they've been achieving excellence in both categories and can compete with the world's most prestigious viticultural titans.

Flavor-wise, you can expect a healthy amount of variety when it comes to Washington's finest wines. From acidic and fruity bottles that can shake you up from even the deepest slumber or sadness to rich and ripe powerhouses that command the respect of everyone in the room after as much as a single whiff. Juicy raspberries that gently tickle your tongue, deep and noble blackberries, intense cherries and earthen oak - these are the flavors that characterize this region, despite the presence of an entire orchestral symphony of other aromatic notes. A sampling of fine wine from Washington is a lot like being seduced, so why not uncork one of these bottles for a potential or existing partner? With a drink of this quality, those romantic sparks will turn into a fireworks display, as your emotions are laid bare and intensified, and you make a connection that can last a lifetime.

Overview

Producer Quilceda Creek

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