2017 Leonetti Loess Vineyard
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Tasting notes
Good medium ruby. Black cherry, licorice, bitter chocolate and violet aromas are a bit inkier than those of the Holy Roller; a tad musky but not gamey, and less obviously high in pH. Sweet, rich, highly concentrated wine with energetic black and blue fruit and violet flavors offering terrific palate presence. A powerful spine of dusty, ripe, broad tannins should enable this wine to evolve for many years. Most impressive today on the very long, floral, mounting aftertaste. This is actually more open-knit at the same stage than the 2016 but has plenty of chewy extract to ensure longevity.
Critic scores
Average Score
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
Jeb Dunnuck
More reviews and scores
From a site on the Blue Mountain foothills, the 2017 Loess is part of the single vineyard series, and while I wasn’t able to get the blend, it normally has a large percentage of Petit Verdot as well as Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Deep purple-colored, with a big nose of blue fruits, graphite, scorched earth, and licorice, it hits the palate with full-bodied richness, plenty of chocolatey oak, building tannins, and a great finish. It’s a brilliant wine, but I wouldn’t open bottles for at least another 4-6 years, and I suspect it won’t hit prime time until a decade after the vintage. Located in Walla Walla and made by Chris Figgins, Leonetti Cellars is one of the benchmark estates in Washington. They produce a bevy of Bordeaux blends, with their Cabernet Sauvignon and Reserve functioning as the flagship wines. They also make a tiny amount of their single vineyard releases, all of which showed brilliantly for this report. Unquestionably, these 2017s are up with the crème de la crème of the vintage. While the 2017 vintage is generally forward and approachable, that’s not the case here and these wines are going to benefit from bottle age.