2011 Doubleback Walla Walla Cabernet Sauvignon

Have you ever had a tough week and couldn't wait for the weekend and then the weekend goes by so fast you wondered what happened?  Well that's the type of week I had last week and now that it Sunday evening, I just want to open up a really good bottle of wine to enjoy.  Tonight it's the 2011 Doubleback Walla Walla Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, produced by Drew Bledsoe and his wife Maura along with Chris Figgins as a consulting wine maker.  This particular wine is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (90%), Merlot (5%), Petit Verdot (4%) and Malbec (1%) from a very cool vintage.

The wine is a beautiful deep garnet color in the glass with nice clarity.  The nose is a lovely combination of ripe wild berries, blackberry, marionberry and raspberry intermingled with some earthy notes of leather and a hint of baking spice.  The taste is a burst of tart cherry at the outset that transitions nicely to some vanilla bean and dark chocolate midpalate.  The finish seems to last until you take your next sip, as the smooth tannins undergird the fantastic acidity that abides in this long, voluptuous and exceedingly dry finish.

Wow, this is just a fantastic glass of wine, one that I'd easily rate a 9 with the potential to go higher with some time in the cellar, after all, I didn't even follow the cellaring recommendation of 5 years before cracking this one open!  It's somewhat more expensive at $89 so not easy to be an everyday wine, but in my opinion it was worth every penny.  Tonight I am enjoying this wine with a marinaded prime sirloin steak grilled rare along with some fresh grilled veggies, but really, this is the sort of wine that you don't really need to pair with anything to enjoy, so cheers!