Pierre-Antoine Rovani

Each year, as I get set to write about Quilceda Creek’s newest releases, I find myself at a loss for words since Robert Parker and I seem to have exhausted all the superlatives at our disposal over the years. Therefore, I must repeat myself: There is no producer in the world that fashions Cabernet Sauvignons as consistently extraordinary as Quilceda Creek.

Founded in 1978, Quilceda Creek inaugurated a new, state-of-the-art winery right next to the Golitzins’ Snohomish home just in time for the 2003 harvest. Quilceda Creek is truly a family affair, with Alex Golitzin, his son Paul and son-in-law Marv Crum handling winemaking duties while son-in-law John Ware takes care of the business side of the operation. Ever present is Alex’s wife Jeannette, responsible for assuring that smiles abound.

There are 975 case of the 2001 Red Wine, a blend of 62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 27% Merlot, and 11% Cabernet Franc. The “second wine” sports an elegant nose of violets, roses, and black fruits. Medium to full-bodied, it is broad, structured, suave, and velvety-textured. Pure and refined, it offers flavors reminiscent of blueberries, blackberries, and cassis. A hint of alcoholic warmth was detected in the finish. Drink it over the next 8-9 years. Score: 89

Set to be bottled in August, 2004, the 2002 Merlot (200 cases) is 75% Merlot from Champoux Vineyard and 25% Cabernet Sauvignon from Red Mountain. Lush, suave, and medium to full-bodied. It has outstanding depth, mouth-coating sweet black fruit interspersed with notes of mocha, and a long, focused character. Projected maturity: 2006-2014. Score: 91-93

The dark ruby-colored 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon (3,150 cases) contains 3% Cabernet Franc. This spectacular wine explodes from the glass with loads of flowers (mostly violets), cassis, black cherries, blackberries, and underlying fresh herbs. Feeling like liquid satin on the palate, it is broad, densely-packed, and has stupendous depth. A refined effort, its medium to full-bodied personality is crammed with highly-detailed black fruits and loads of exquisitely ripe tannin. In addition, the taster has the distinct feeling that this wine is holding much of its fruit in reserve... This blockbuster has it all. Projected maturity: 2007-2018. Score: 98+

Similarly-colored, the 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon (3,400) contains 2% Merlot and 1% Cabernet Franc. It displays blackberry, tar, violet, herb, and cassis aromas that lead to a velvety-textured, penetrating character. Effortlessly sporting that mind-boggling juxtaposition of power and elegance, it slathers the palate with red cherries, blackberries, raspberries, cassis liqueur, and spices. Immensely rich yet fresh, this broad, expensive wine is plush, packed with sweet tannin, and immensely long. They’ve done it again! Projected maturity: 2007-2019. Bravo! Score: 97-100