Cairdeas Winery 2014 Consonance Red Wine Blend, Yakima Valley, $42
As the Rhône Ranger of Lake Chelan, Charlie Lybecker takes a different turn at his winery off Highway with this latest release of Consonance. Rather than even contributions of Petite Sirah and Syrah in 2013, he boosted the PS from Inland Desert Vineyard near Red Mountain into a position of 48% of the final blend. Syrah (24%) is followed closely by Counoise (21%) and finished with Mourvèdre – all three varieties coming from Meek Vineyard in the Yakima Valley. All the grapes where fermented whole berry, but only the Syrah spent time in new French oak. The nose is akin to a basket of ripe Bing cherries and plum with Sugarfina Finnska Red strawberry licorice, orange oil and rose petal. There’s delicious dried strawberry on the entry, orange sherbet on the midpalate and pomegranate in the finish, which brings a nice late tightening of tannin and tangy acidity. A trio of Cairdeas’ Rhône-inspired reds earned gold or better last fall at the Tri-Cities Wine Festival, and this blend deserves to be in that discussion, especially upon its release this spring.
Rating: Outstanding!
Production: 300 cases
Alcohol: 14.5%
Leave a Reply