91
Wine Advocate - Wine Advocate
The 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon Stillwater Creek Vineyard offers notes of blackberry preserves on the dark and brooding nose, which is softly volatile and displays the 14.9% alcohol. Full-bodied, big and juicy, the wine seems as if it’s been pushed too far, and the fruit's expressions seem to run together, blurring the line of finesse and precision. The wine ends with tannic grip on the long, juicy and chocolaty finish, leaving me wanting more varietal purity and finesse. For those who appreciate a big, bold wine, this is it.
20 Rand Sealey - Rand Sealey's Review of Washington Wines
From what is now the Royal Slope AVA, this is blended with 12% Merlot. It displays an inky ruby color and intense aromas of wild blackberries, old tree cherries, Damson plums, crushed black roses, sweet tobacco, sweet pea flowers, sandalwood, cedar, black olive, rosemary, a hint of mint, and stick incense. The flavors are simultaneously velvety and authoritative, marked by infusions of crèmede cacao, French press coffee and Frenchman Hills alluvial minerals. On the back, the wine enrichens further(from the Merlot) with sensations of pressed fruits,roasted pecans, mocha, pulverized charcoal, integrated oak (again 100% new French) followed seamlessly by a long, complex sweet-dry tannin finish. This is old vine Royal Slope Cabernet at its best. 20/20 points