Northstar Cabernet Sauvignon 2016
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Product Details
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Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Aromas of black cherry lead into a palate ripe with raspberry jam, chocolate cedar, and vanilla flavors. The wine has a full mid-palate and a rich finish of toasted oak.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
All from the Coal Creek Vineyard and all varietal, aged in 44% new French oak, the 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Columbia Valley is the best I've tasted from this estate to date. Blackcurrants, tobacco, dark chocolate, and a touch of violet all define the bouquet, and it's medium to full-bodied, beautifully textured, and layered, with gorgeous fruit, silky tannins, and a great, great finish. I suspect this is the finest wine to date from this estate.
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James Suckling
This is a silky textured red that is very smooth and refined with blackcurrant and clove character. Hint of tea leaf, too. Full-bodied, creamy and beautiful. Better after 2021.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon has a dark-fruited nose of generous, ripe black fruits, with plump blackberry, cassis and currant. The palate has a good base of acidity with structuring tannins that build across the mid-palate. The finish is fruity and spicy ending with red fruit and cinnamon on the aftertaste. This is a delicious wine, and only 400 cases were made for the world.
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Wine Spectator
Fresh herb, dark coffee, plum, graphite, green herb and vanilla aromas lead to ripe, hedonistic, but nicely balanced fruit flavors. A grip of tannins backs it up.
Other Vintages
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Northstar, located in Walla Walla, Washington, aims to make Merlots that can be considered among the world's best, using fruit sourced from one of the world's best regions for the variety: Washington state. Winemaker, David "Merf" Merfeld, blends New World fruit with an old world winemaking style, influenced by Bordeaux's "right bank," to create his highly-acclaimed wines. Northstar produces two Merlot-based wines from the Columbia Valley and Walla Walla AVAs, as well as the Stella Maris red blend and extremely limited production bottlings of the blending component varieties that Merf uses as his "spice box" in creating Northstar's Merlots.
Washington produces so many exciting wines, and that definitely includes Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. With over 10,000 acres under vine, Cabernet Sauvignon is now the most widely-grown varietal in the state. Terrific examples hail from sub-appellations like Red Mountain, Wahluke Slope, Horse Heaven Hills and Walla Walla Valley. One of the fascinations of these Columbia Valley Cabs is that they so often seem to have one foot in the New World and one in the Old. Representing the former are characteristics like the ripe, forward fruit that results from long sunny days during the growing season (up to two hours longer than in much of California). Old World similarities include an undeniable brightness from acidity, as well as notes of herbs, graphite and a dusty, sometimes gravelly minerality.
Whether you’re looking for a budget bottle for everyday enjoyment, or a stellar, world-class wine with tremendous aging potential, Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon wines can deliver the goods! Among the many fine options are bottles from Columbia Crest, Chateau Ste. Michelle, L’ecole #41, Quilceda Creek and Leonetti.