Achieving a final blend for any of our wines takes me months; trial blends, barrel by barrel, are made “in the lab”, assessed and recorded. Starting with a blank slate for each blend helps keep things focused on the completeness of flavor, mouthfeel, complexity and balance. We were somewhat surprised when the final blend for the 2006 Père de Famille was almost identical to the 2005, within 0.5% for any of the four varieties: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Malbec.

The blend yielded a wine of serious proportion, lush and silky structure, and a complex tangle of fruit, spice and wood notes. There’s a deep core of black currant, with plum and black cherry beneath, then the sweet pipe tobacco, black olive and sandalwood set in. It’s full bodied, with a fundamental grip of tannin for longevity (79% of the fruit comes from Red Mountain), but a lifted and plush texture (composed of equal parts from the Horse Heaven Hills and Yakima Valley).
 

Blending Detail and Aging Profile

Blending Detail:

• 84% Cabernet Sauvignon
• 8% Merlot
• 6% Petit Verdot
• 2% Malbec

AVA & Vineyard Detail:

• 79% Red Mountain
• 10.5% Horse Heaven Hills
• 10.5% Yakima Valley

Acclaim

The Wine Advocate (Parker) reviewed the 2006 about 3 months after bottling and had this to say:

“…Opaque purple, the wine has a brooding nose of wood smoke, earth notes, mineral, spice box, black cherry, and blackberry. This is followed by a layered, opulent wine with superb depth and concentration…” 95 points