Sourced primarily from the earliest, 1980 plantings on this site supplemented by some from 1989, the Seven Hills 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon Seven Hills Vineyard is not blended with any other variety (which is the way the winery’s proprietors say they prefer their Cabernet- and Merlot-labeled bottlings on principle) and was aged in 40% new barrels. Cassis, licorice, and tamarind make for a lovely nose, and presage a full-bodied but not heavy, polished and well-concentrated palate on which a bit of sweet sour split is evidenced between herbaceous and ripe berry elements. I only wish the finish was more persistent and were as delightful as the nose, but hints of iodine and cherry pit still offer interest as well as attractive counterpoint to the wine’s sense of sheer sweetness of fruit. This ought to perform well for several more years.
While continuing to source from the eponymous Walla Walla vineyard that this winery’s proprietors Casey and Vicky McClellan helped plant three decades ago and that has since also become a mainstay for many others, Seven Hills the producer taps into a wide range of other fruit sources, some well-known. During a 15 year stretch making wine from Seven Hills Vineyard under this label, the McClellans and their then vineyard partners only shared its fruit with Leonetti and a couple of other wineries. After the dissolution of the original Seven Hills Vineyard partnership, the couple dropped out of winemaking for a time but retained contracts on their share of acreage, reemerging as a winery in 2003, along with a McClellan estate vineyard immediately adjacent to Seven Hills Vineyard. The house style often (at least in the reds I tasted) incorporates herbaceous elements yet at the same time tends toward almost syrupy fruit – notwithstanding Casey McClellan’s claim to be a relatively earlier picker and his wines’ modest alcohol levels – with prominent impressions of oak (often including its tannins) even though the share of new wood is typically not more than half. Some of the reds are given well over two years’ elevage, which in the case of a 2009 Red Mountain Cabernet Reserve resulted in some dulling opacity and brutal tannins. Whites – particularly Riesling – from a wide range of vineyard sources represent a significant share of Seven Hill’s production, but I can’t say that I was notably impressed by the three 2011s they showed me, the Riesling among which was a bit sweet-sour with a rather clenched green apple back end.
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