Featured Columbia Crest
Wines
Creating Wines
That Surpass Expectations
At
Columbia Crest, we pride ourselves on delivering
handcrafted, superior-quality small-lot wines,
as well as affordable everyday wines. Our
winemakers make it their mission to deliver
wines that beat expectations year after year.
Wine Tiers
Two
Vines Wines
Grand Estate Wines
Reserve Wines
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Two Vines Wines
The
wonderful winemaking conditions in Washington’s Columbia
Valley provide the fresh, full flavors of our Two Vines
wines. Our entire Two Vines portfolio has
established Columbia Crest as one of America’s most
popular and fast-growing wineries. Critics have
repeatedly praised these wines for their value and high
quality.
2003
Two Vines Shiraz
Columbia
Valley
“The Two Vines Shiraz features New World-style ripe,
jammy fruitiness blended from varieties traditional in the Rhone
Valley. Black cherry and white pepper aromatics also are pronounced
on the palate along with hints of strawberry. The finish is supple
and lingering.”
- Ray Einberger, Winemaker
The final blend includes Viognier and Grenache to
enhance the mouthfeel and fruit aromatics.
2003 Cabernet
Sauvignon Two Vines
Columbia Valley
"This fruit-forward, minimally oaked Two Vines
Cabernet Sauvignon offers light blueberry and cherry aromas and
flavors throughout. The balance of fruit and soft oak provides a
lingering finish with hints of cocoa." - Ray Einberger, Winemaker
Grand Estate Wines
Columbia Crest’s Grand
Estates wines are crafted from a collection of remarkable Columbia
Valley vineyard sites, which are selected specifically for their ability
to produce wines with intense fruit character and complexity not found
in most “everyday” wines. Columbia Crest Grand Estates are
distinguished by their ripe varietal intensity. Lush and vibrant,
the wines offer a pleasing balance of sugar, pH and tannin—a synergy
that is grown in the vineyards and preserved in the cellar.
2003 Grand Estate Chardonnay
Columbia Valley
Premium vineyards throughout the Columbia Valley are
sources for Columbia Crest’s Grand Estates program.
Whole berry Chardonnay was pressed, and the juice
was held at 50 degrees in stainless steel tanks for two days. The
settled juice was placed into a combination of new and one-year-old
American (60%) and French (40%) oak. In barrel nine months.
“This is a complex wine with
lingering aromas and flavors of cantaloupe, green apple and caramelized
sugar. Hints of nutmeg and clove play out on the lush, refined finish.”
- Ray Einberger, Winemaker
2003 Grand Estate Merlot
Columbia Valley
98% Merlot, 1% Cabernet Sauvignon, 1% Cabernet Franc
90 pts & Best Value - Wine Spectator
Grand Estates Merlot is
harvested from vineyards located predominantly on the Horse Heaven Hills
(texture and body) and the Wahluke Slope (aromatics and complexity.)
The grapes were crushed with 20% whole berries remaining. Wine
aged 14-16 months. The oak regime featured 25% new and 75% older French
and American barrels. Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon contributed
softness and further fruit dimension to the final blend. Alcohol:
13.5%
“This complex artisan wine
is produced using various barrel types and varietals to offer classic
Merlot spice, blackberry, and cocoa aromatics which persist on the
palate. The balance of wood and black fruits creates a velvety,
seductive finish.”- Ray Einberger, Winemaker
Locating and Buying Columbia Crest Wines
Reserve Wines
To give our Columbia Crest Reserve wines the
hands-on, special care you would expect from a boutique winery, we’ve
established separate areas where we use artisan techniques for
fermentation and barrel aging. This select group of super-premium
Washington wines can be consumed now, but we suggest that you hold onto
your favorites and allow them to develop in the bottle. They will reward
your patience with rich flavors, velvety textures, and long finishes—and
prove just how extraordinary Columbia Valley wines can be.
2004 Reserve
Syrah
Horse Heaven Hills
2003 Vintage 91 pts —
Wine Spectator
Two vineyards sites of the Horse Heaven
Hills appellation – one for Syrah and one for Viognier – are
the sole contributors to our Reserve Syrah program. The 2004
harvest was characterized by smaller berry and cluster size,
with intense flavors, good sugar development and high
natural acidity. The Syrah fruit was co-fermented with
whole berry Viognier (0.25%) in open-top fermenters, with
twice-daily pumpovers, or in stainless steel fermenters with
punch downs four times daily. Lots were blended and
placed in half new French and half new American oak barrels
for malolactic fermentation. The wine was racked by
gravity flow at three month intervals during its 20 months
in barrels. Alcohol: 14.2%
“This Reserve Syrah, crafted in a Cote Rotie style,
boasts generous Syrah aromatics of white pepper, cocoa and blueberry,
with hints of Viognier’s subtly sweet orange peel, pear and rose petal.
Spice and earthy overtones, hallmarks of the Horse Heaven Hills terroir,
are followed by mouth-filling flavors of dark chocolate, cocoa, and
roasted coffee bean and a seductive blueberry-raspberry finish.” - Ray
Einberger, Winemaker
2003 Walter Clore
Private Reserve Red Table Wine
Columbia Valley (50% Wahluke Slope,
50% Horse Heaven Hills)
2002 Vintage - 93 pts,
Highly Recommended and Top 100 — Wine Spectator
Walter Clore is known as the “Father of the Washington’s
Wine Industry.” In honor of his viticultural research and
contribution to our success, we’ve named this special wine after him.
Our Reserve Red is produced from vineyards among the oldest in the
state; vineyards located on the Wahluke Slope offer aromatics, texture
and complexity; Cold Creek sites contribute flavor and fruitiness; and
Horse Heaven Hills fruit introduces balance and body. Small lot,
artisan-style winemaking has produced a refined, yet powerful, wine that
will reach maturity well into the next decade.
“A classic Bordeaux-style winemaking protocol enhances
the aromatics of earth, coconut, blackberry and slight mint in this red
blend. Fruit and oak are perfectly balanced to yield a very
complex chocolate-cherry-blackberry profile with a lingering finish.
This is a very seductive, hedonistic experience in the glass.” - Ray
Einberger, Winemaker
Locating and Buying Columbia Crest Wines
Copyright ©
1997 - 2006 Susan R. O'Hara. All
rights reserved.
Last revised:
10/23/2006
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