Wit Cellars 2013 Elephant Mountain Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, Yakima Valley, $50
One of the Yakima Valley’s premier sites is Joe Hattrup’s Elephant Mountain Vineyard in the Rattlesnake Hills, and the winemaking duo of Flint Nelson and Cat Warwick shows a bit of panache with this vineyard-designate Cabernet Sauvignon from their nascent project in Prosser. The nose is big, dark and intense with sweet blueberry and dark chocolate aromas leading to roasted coffee, black pepper, Earl Grey tea and black olive. Delicious and easy-to-access flavors of Marionberry and blueberry pick up an underlying rub of sweet herbs. Its structure is nicely framed by black tea tannins that lead into raspberry acidity and a finish of green olive, bittersweet chocolate with black cherry. They suggest serving this alongside pork chops, beef peppercorn steak or a cheese plate with pepper salami. The Wit Cellars tasting room is not far from Kestrel Vintners, their former employer.
Rating: Outstanding!
Production: 191 cases
Alcohol: 14.8%
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