Elephant Mountain Vineyard in the Rattlesnake Hills overlooking the Yakima Valley provides the fruit for this winery in Woodinville, Wash., and John Patterson has crafted a Tempranillo more approachable than many from this vintage. He abstained from using new barrels, so the nose is filled with black cherry, strawberry, vanilla, slate, cedar and black pepper. There’s remarkable density to the structure of creamy black cherry and plum, supported by managed tannins and an endearing finish of vanilla bean, anise and chocolate. Its gold medal at the 2013 Seattle Wine Awards was well-earned.
Rating: Outstanding!
Production: 300 cases
Alcohol: 14.2%
Leave a Reply