Beginning with the dusty mineral essence of Red Mountain, the 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Galitzine Vineyard offers plenty of dark, red-berried expressions with elements of dusty plum and blackberry jus before swaying with gorgeous oak notes of cinnamon, nutmeg and crème br?lée. There are full-bodied, firm tannins across the palate, and the wine is food-friendly now but will be spectacular with an additional year of bottle aging. Concluding with a long-lingering finish, this is yet another stunning bottling of Galitzine Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon. Bravo!

Ever so rarely, you experience a wine that takes you on a journey. Flirting with perfection, the 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon Galitzine Vineyard rushes out the glass like a rollercoaster, with an array of fruit, earth and oak aromas. With just enough volatility to lift you out of your seat, yet supported by a lap-bar of energetic acidity to keep it firm and tight, the wine banks into the first turn, expressing fresh, heady aromas of Chambord, cocoa nibs, baked earth and resinous purple flowers, then elements of baking spices cascade across the nose. Full-bodied and riding through a loop, the palate opens to chocolate-covered blueberries and crème de cassis, before exploding through a kaleidoscope of black and blue-fruited goodness. Through the long, winding finish, all I can do is put my hands up, grin from ear to ear and enjoy the rest of the ride, proving that the Galitzine Vineyard Cabernet is the clear champion of the range this year. The moment that the experience is over, you’ll be running back to get back in line to have another sip. 1,171 cases produced. Absolutely stellar!

Red fruited and expressive, the 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Galitzine Vineyard opens with the classic Red Mountain rusticity on the nose along with rich and elegant dark red fruits. Full-bodied, the palate has a crunchy minerality and firm tannins that will mellow in time. The focus here is clearly on the fruit, with the impressively well-integrated 100% new French oak lending seductive baking spices accents to the dark cherry and black raspberry expressions, followed by a slight tartness on the finish. This will do best after a few years in the cellar and will go for a decade or two. I look forward to revisiting this bottling over the next decade. Absolutely stunning! Only 1,050 cases made.

Opening in the glass with notes of minty chocolate, ripe blackberries, crème de cassis and incense, the 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Galitzine Vineyard is the firmest, most structurally austere of the Quilceda Creek bottlings this year. Full-bodied and lavished with creamy new oak, it's layered and concentrated but youthfully chewy on the palate, with a deep core of dark fruit and a spicy, vanillin-inflected finish. While Quilceda's other bottlings are more youthfully precocious, this will require 3 or 4 years before it really rewards pulling corks. I wouldn't mind seeing gentler extraction and a more understated barrel program.

The finest vintage ever for this cuvee, the utterly spellbinding 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Galitzine Vineyard is 100% Red Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon that was brought up in new barrels. Slightly deeper and richer than the Columbia Valley Cabernet, its deep ruby/purple color is followed by a smorgasbord of graphite, crushed violets, crushed rocks, cassis and dark chocolate. With incredible richness, ultra-fine tannin, no hard edges and a stacked mid-palate, give this crazy good red 2-3 years of cellaring and enjoy over the following two decades! Bravo to the team at Quilceda!