2007 Doubleback Cabernet Sauvignon
Estimated value
Buying options
Tasting notes
Bledsoe, a native of eastern Washington, is planting a vineyard in a remarkable development right on the Oregon/Washington border of Walla Walla Valley but in the meantime, he and Figgins have collaborated on a 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon blended with 13.2% Merlot and 11.3% Petit Verdot that I tasted as a barrel sample one year ago. Now in bottle, it was aged for 22 months in 60% new French oak. It displays a purple-color, aromas of sandalwood, Asian spices, lilacs, earth notes, black currant, and plum. Dense, smooth-textured, and with excellent volume, it has enough stuffing to evolve for 4-6 years and will offer a drinking window extending from 2014 to 2027. Doubleback is a partnership of Drew Bledsoe, famous retired quarterback, and Chris Figgins, son of Gary Figgins, the founder of Leonetti Cellar. www.doubleback.com
Critic scores
Average Score
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
Jay S Miller, Wine Advocate
More reviews and scores
(bottled the day before I tasted it) Good deep ruby-red. Brambly, almost candied aromas of blackberry, black cherry and boysenberry, complicated by graphite and lifted by a violet note. Densely packed, juicy and youthfully tight; not a fleshy wine but boasts excellent lift. Brisk flavors of blackberry, violet and mint are in harmony with the wine's firm but rather suave tannins. This is the very promising first release from ex-NFL star quarterback Drew Bledsoe. Bledsoe went to high school in Walla Walla with Chris Figgins, who made the wine at the Artifex Wine Company in Walla Walla, vinifying in open-top fermenters and aging the wine in French barriques, 60% new. The blend includes 75.5% cabernet sauvignon from Pepper Bridge and Seven Hills, merlot from the Figgins' Upland Vineyard and petit verdot from Bledsoe's Flying B vineyard outside the town of Echo, on the Oregon side of the Columbia Valley.