WBW#34: Washington State Cabernet Sauvignon
13-Jun-2007
This month’s Wine Blogging Wednesday is hosted by Catie at Through the Walla Walla Grapevine. With a blog name like that was there any doubt what her theme might be? Although she really wanted to limit the event to wines from Walla Walla she broadened it to all of Washington state as Walla Walla specific wines might be a little hard to find worldwide. And she chose Cabernet Sauvignon as the varietal we should select for this event.
Living in Washington state, Walla Walla wines are fairly easy for me to locate. Although it did mean a trip to my wine shop as I didn’t think I happened to have one in my stash which occurred to me while I was out and about one day last week so I just decided to pick a bottle up to make sure. I figured it was the least I could do based on my location and Catie’s hopes.
The wine I picked up was Seven Hills 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon, Walla Walla Valley, Seven Hills Vineyard. Seven Hills, established in 1988, is one of the original five wineries of the Walla Walla Valley. They make mostly Bordelais-style wines and produce less than 10,000 cases per year.This particular wine is a deep, deep garnet. The nose is of dried red fruit – plums and cherries were the first two that came to mind – and a little hint of raisin, too.
In the mouth the wine is silky and complex. The fruits are still present and there is a bit more of a berry taste but there are other deeper elements, maybe a little leather. I couldn’t quite identify the specific element. There is a nice amount of acidity but it is not overwhelmingly tannic. The night I tasted I was just having a snack for dinner but I found it went well with my salami and cheese. :-) I really would have loved to drink this with a nice steak, though.
This wine needs a little time to open. I finished the bottle a day after I opened it and liked it even better than on the first day.
This wine retails for about $30 (my price was $29) and I think that is a fair price for the bottle.
All in all this was a lovely bottle of wine and one I’d be happy to purchase again. But next time I will plan to have a lovely grilled steak to enjoy along with it!
You’ll be able to find a summary of all wines tasted in Catie’s round-up.
Culinary Fool 
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