1997

Some years, we have excellent fruit from vines that are too young to be used in our ultra-premium wines. Every year, our stringent barrel selections leave some wines behind, too. And sometimes, we just have too much of a good thing — spectacular fruit that we simply have in excess.

The Quilceda Creek Columbia Valley Red Wine is our way of putting all of this fruit to good use. The blend is 73 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 6 percent Merlot, and 21 percent Cabernet Franc, sourced from the Champoux, Ciel du Cheval, Kiona, Klipsun, and Tapteil vineyards. For this vintage, our table wine benefitted from some excellent Merlot grapes from old vineyards that we had in over abundance. The winemaking is handled almost exactly the same as it is in our top-tier wines: 22 months in 100 percent French oak and a year in the bottle prior to release.

On release, the 1997 Red Table Wine had the aromas of cherries, almonds, vanilla and spice with the flavors carrying through on the palate. It is medium-bodied and was intended to drink well on release and over the following few years, an ideal wine to accompany a casual meal or to drink while you’re waiting for your other Quilceda Creek wines to mature. We produced 1,150 cases. 

–Paul Golitzin, Director of Winemaking