30. Woodward Canyon Winery 2011 Artist Series Cabernet Sauvignon, Washington, $59
This has been a classic Cab since owner Rick Small first released it in 1993. This edition uses grapes primarily from Champoux (30%) and Canoe Ridge (29%) vineyards, along with contributions from Sagemoor, Woodward Canyon Estate, Hedges, Andrews, Spring Creek, Weinbau and Mirage. Lovely aromas of oregano, dark cherries and blackberries lead off the aromatics. In the mouth, the oregano blends with black cherry, blackberry and black pepper that leads to a finish with black licorice and chocolaty, firm tannins.
Production: 1,930 cases
Alcohol: 14.4%
Lists such as this are nice. But I content that wines with a production of less then 250 cases should not be included. There are wines here with microscopic production levels. That just amounts to teasing the vast majority of the readers.
Jim,
A valid point. I would contend that highlighting even small-production wines gives wine lovers an idea about what wineries to visit or wines to try.
Additionally, this is a bit of a slippery slope. Do we also exclude wines based on price point because they are accessible primarily to those only able to afford them?
We went into this with the thought of picking out the very best wines we tasted in 2013. During the process, we didn’t look at price point or production level. As a result, we also ended up with a lot of wines in which tens of thousands of cases were produced (in addition to small-production wines).