Quilceda Creek
Palengat Horse Heaven Hills Red Blend
Horse Heaven Hills, Columbia Valley, Oregon/Washington, USA
I’m going to leave my original review up, but if you want my final review of the this wine, scroll down to the bottom.
My original rating was 9.1– Pine and a hint of leather on the nose. Currents on the front of the palate. Medium tannic structure—but not much going on on the mid palate. Ends with a lot of tart high notes on the finish. There is a pleasant mineral astringency that lingers after one swallows. I rather like that. I’m going to let this sit for a half an hour to see if the tartness of the finish mellows out a bit. There’s not much here to open up though. this is a perfectly fine wine, but it’s not QC’s best. Slightly disappointed.
Update: after being left in a decanter for an hour and a half (I got distracted) the fruit on the front and the mineral finish faded, leaving the astringency at the back of the palate with tannins that were unable to balance the bitterness. This is a wine that’s best guzzled quickly [at least if you intend to drink the wine today— see my further comments below].
Updated rating, two days later: 9.6!
Oh my! Because this wine didn’t seem very exceptional, I put the remainder in an empty plastic water bottle. I squeezed out most of the air and I capped it and left it for two days. I certainly wasn’t expecting much when I drank it tonight, But it went from OK to fantastic! Bouquet was 100 percent leather. The fruit had faded on the front, but the tannins from front to back are now intriguingly complex. Lots of earth, and mineral notes all along the palate, and the finish is longer. Yummy!
The moral is don’t bother to decant this sucker. Open the bottle, at least 24 hours before you intend to drink it, and do the French thing of pouring off half a glass and then re-corking the bottle. Truly an amazing transformation!
I’m going to leave my original review up, but if you want my final review of the this wine, scroll down to the bottom.
My original rating was 9.1– Pine and a hint of leather on the nose. Currents on the front of the palate. Medium tannic structure—but not much going on on the mid palate. Ends with a lot of tart high notes on the finish. There is a pleasant mineral astringency that lingers after one swallows. I rather like that. I’m going to let this sit for a half an hour to see if the tartness of the finish mellows out a bit. There’s not much here to open up though. this is a perfectly fine wine, but it’s not QC’s best. Slightly disappointed.
Update: after being left in a decanter for an hour and a half (I got distracted) the fruit on the front and the mineral finish faded, leaving the astringency at the back of the palate with tannins that were unable to balance the bitterness. This is a wine that’s best guzzled quickly [at least if you intend to drink the wine today— see my further comments below].
Updated rating, two days later: 9.6!
Oh my! Because this wine didn’t seem very exceptional, I put the remainder in an empty plastic water bottle. I squeezed out most of the air and I capped it and left it for two days. I certainly wasn’t expecting much when I drank it tonight, But it went from OK to fantastic! Bouquet was 100 percent leather. The fruit had faded on the front, but the tannins from front to back are now intriguingly complex. Lots of earth, and mineral notes all along the palate, and the finish is longer. Yummy!
The moral is don’t bother to decant this sucker. Open the bottle, at least 24 hours before you intend to drink it, and do the French thing of pouring off half a glass and then re-corking the bottle. Truly an amazing transformation!