Wine Review - Columbia Winery Signature Series Cabernet Sauvignon

Aadmittedly, this wine is a little more top shelf than the Bunker household is used to. We tend to keep it below $20 a bottle if possible. Less than $15 is even better, and hey less than $10? That's perfect. Some times you have to splurge, though.

And I'm not going to splurge on a wine without tasting it first. So it was off to Woodinville Wine Country, or more appropriately Woodinville Winery Country, since most if not all of the wines made there come from Columbia Valley grapes in eastern Washington.

The Columbia Valley is Washington's largest AVA, covering nearly a third of the state's land mass, and is characterized by the presence of the Columbia River, which provides not only ample irrigation, but also consistent air and water drainage. It was established in 1984, and is currently Washington's best known AVA. The wide variety of grapes available in the area provides many opportunities for blending, and thus you'll always see a majority of wines in the store with "Columbia Valley" on the label.

The wine:

1999 Columbia Winery Cabernet sauvignon, David Lake Signature Series, Sagemoor Vineyard, Columbia Valley, WA.
90% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Cabernet Franc, 1% Merlot
Alcohol 13.5% by volume
Retail (at the winery): $36.99

To anchor the meal, we decided to stick with the red wine + red meat = good rule, and picked veal. (I know, I know.) Since the cutlets were pretty thin, we bolstered the meal with butternut squash, some roasted red potatoes and broccoli.

The wine was a nice deep red, with what looked to be a medium body. The aroma was mainly raspberries, sweet but also a bit of tartness to it. A pre-dinner taste confirmed the medium body, and the wine proved to be a bit spicy, with a little oak - overall it had very well-balanced flavors, worthy of the David Lake signature on the bottle. I wouldn't expect any less from someone who could well be considered Washington's premiere winemaker.

With the veal, which was pan-seared with capers, lemon, and artichoke hearts (and a little chicken broth), the wine was a nice compliment. Not great, but nice. I would suspect that the wine would cut a good cream sauce - something a little contrary to the wine itself to make it stand out. The butternut squash confirmed this notion, as the wine really shined against the creaminess of the squash. As well, the wine complimented the olive oil/rosemary starchiness of our roasted red potatoes. The broccoli, well, was broccoli.

We decided to give the wine our soon-to-be-patented after dinner chocolate test. We'd picked up some Plantations "Arriba" dark chocolate with quinoa (of all things) in it. Unfortunately, as with our previous wine, the dark chocolate with added flavor clashed. So we brought out the trusty plain milk chocolate, which once again proved reliable in enhancing the wine's flavor, as opposed to overpowering it.

Bottom line: Was the wine worth the $36.99? Honestly, we wouldn't have bought it without tasting it at the winery first, and obviously we were sold from the first sip. This is a nicely balanced vintage wine, to be sure. We knew from the second it hit our tongues.

4.5/5.0