2019 Cabernet Sauvignon

2019 Cabernet Sauvignon

Year:                   2019

Varietals:             100% Cabernet Sauvignon

Appellation:          Walla Walla Valley

Vineyard:             70% Pepper Bridge Vineyard & 30% Seven Hills Vineyard

Winemaker:         Dave Stephenson

Alcohol:               14.5%

Date bottled:        June 2021

Price:                  $44

Production:          260 cases

Block 30 of Pepper Bridge Vineyard might be our winemaker’s favorite. It’s a cold, low-lying block that often doesn’t fruit and when it does, the yields are low. In exceptional years it becomes the backbone of Incendiary or Backdraft. 2019 was fortunately a perfect year, so we get all that amazing fruit in our Cabernet Sauvignon. Yay!

This is one of the darker Cabernet Sauvignons we’ve made, looking like blackberry juice in the glass. The dark purple fruit theme continues as you stick your nose in that glass – blueberry, Bing cherry, plum, then some fresh tilled earth, fresh tobacco, campfire, and leather to balance it all out. There is thyme, chocolate, and ruby red grapefruit all managing to exist together in delicious harmony.

You get more red fruits once you start tasting this Cabernet Sauvignon. Red currant, Rainier cherry, strawberry, and roasted beet which transitions you into the earth, hay, and violet.  

All the complex flavors lead to playing with food pairings, but I happened to stumble upon the perfect thing: Za’atar roasted cauliflower with a pinch of garam masala. I highly suggest spending extra on the freshest cauliflower you can find, as the sweeter the better.