2020 Quilceda Creek Cabernet Sauvignon Palengat Mach One Vineyard Clone 685
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Tasting notes
All Clone 685 from the Mach One Vineyard, the 2020 Cabernet Sauvignon Palengat offers a Graves-like sense of scorched earth, smoked tobacco, asphalt, and assorted darker black and blue fruits. It stays tight and compact on the palate, with full-bodied richness, building, ripe tannins, flawless balance, and a great finish. It's another gem of a wine that is clearly in the top handful of wines in the vintage. Give bottles 4-5 years to integrate its oak, and it's going to evolve for two decades or more.
Critic scores
Jeb Dunnuck
Anthony Mueller, Wine Advocate
More reviews and scores
My top pick from the estate this year is the 2020 Cabernet Sauvignon Palengat Clone 685 coming from their Mach One vineyard. Big, juicy and generous with fresh florals that entice and seduce the nose, the Palengat bottling is pure with picturesque juicy dark red, black and blue fruit tones that sing in immaculate harmony along with aromas of potpourri, sweet cherry blossom, plum compote and elegant brown baking spices. Full-bodied, finessed and incredibly floral, the palate provides impeccable balance with succulent acidity and fine-grained tannins that melt away, revealing an elegant and gorgeous mouthfeel that provides profound pleasure. For those who think that all 2020 wines from the American West Coast were ruined by fire, think again. This mind-blowing and absolutely stunning Cabernet will prove you wrong. Only 930 cases were made. Good luck finding some!
About the producer
Founded in 1978, Quilceda Creek helped put Washington Cabernet on the world stage. Mentored by André Tchelistcheff, the family-owned winery became renowned for its powerful, age-worthy Cabernets and was the first U.S. winery outside California to earn 100 points from Wine Advocate.