From a basaltic outcropping dominated by a small 1962 planting of Cabernet (the state’s second oldest vines and oldest Cabernet) and officially included as an appendage to the as-is relatively tiny Snipes Mountain AVA, the DeLille 2009 Harrison Hill – latest in a 15 vintage line – incorporates 26% Merlot, 13% Cabernet Franc, and 1% Petit Verdot. Talk about the brightness and lift that seem, in the best instances, singularly possible with black Bordelais grapes grown in Washington, here’s the best instance I’ve met – and from the 2009 vintage no less! Violet, rose, lily and heliotrope perfume and high-toned herbal essences waft from the glass and persist billowingly inner-mouth, accompanied by palate-staining, juicy, fresh cherry and cassis, the whole underlain by sweet-smoky evocations of leather, black tea, peat, tobacco and steel shavings. The umami level here is so high you won’t be able to stop salivating between sips, and the finish is a veritable magic carpet ride. Yeah, yeah, I know: ‘old vines, big mystique fool critic into inflating rating.’ May you be lucky enough to taste this for yourself, o ye of little faith! I’m dreaming of an opportunity to experience a vertical of this bottling, but meantime, as this is my first encounter, all I can go on is intuition when I suggest that it will be worth following for at least the better part of two decades.
Winemaker-vineyard manager and self-styled “old world traditionalist” Chris Upchurch has been the guiding spirit of DeLille Cellars since its early-’90s inception, although the ostensibly Old World models followed have evolved significantly in both marketing and winemaking terms. Early-on, DeLille, unsurprisingly, – like so many other U.S. wineries – focused exclusively on a Bordelais vision. That said, Upchurch and his partners had been in business for nearly a decade before they purchased a vineyard: Grand Ciel, adjacent to Ciel du Cheval and Galitzine and managed by the accomplished and (seemingly in Red Mountain at least) ubiquitous Ryan Johnson. DeLille also vinifies and bottles separately the fruit of Harrison Hill’s antique vines (for more about which see my tasting note on the 2009 vintage) and a second estate vineyard project is afoot. The established if misleading name Chaleur Estate was retained for DeLille’s flagship wine crafted from contract fruit (second wine: D2); while the designation Doyenne – utilized from early-on for Syrah – morphed into an officially separate winery for experimental-minded exploration of themes inspired by Southern France. (For database purposes, we at The Wine Advocate / eRobertParker.com treat Doyenne as part of the relevant wines’ descriptions and a DeLille sub-label, which reflects the way those wines are marketed and the spirit in which they were presented to me. Comments on Upchurch’s vinificatory approaches can be found sprinkled though my tasting notes.)
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