DeLille Cellars Grand Ciel Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 / 750 ml.

Tasted from bottle, the 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon Grand Ciel is 100% Red Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon that spent 18 months in 100% new French oak. Full-bodied, powerful and concentrated, it possesses brilliantly rich aromas and flavors of smoked game, black currant, graphite, tobacco and crushed stone-like minerality. More concentrated, backwards and masculine than the 2011, it will require 3–4 years of cellaring and impress for upwards of two decade, minimum. Drink 2017–2030.

Dark berries and minerals on the vibrant, sweet nose. Intensely flavored but light on its feet, conveying an impression of serious power without any excess weight. Dark berry fruit flavors are complicated by subtle soil tones and strong graphite minerality. This wonderfully concentrated, seamless wine finishes with noble tannins and outstanding palate-staining persistence. A good bit of this material is declassified into DeLille’s D2 and Four Flags bottlings. Wonderfully suave Washington cabernet for extended cellaring.