I was offered a spot on the Quilceda Creek mailing list for the 2013 CVR. I am currently on Rivers Marie, Rhys and Phillips Hill and not sure if this is worth it our not as I have never drank their wines. Any feedback? Style, QPR etc.
I do not know Phillips Hill. If you are on Rhys and Rivers Marie for the pinots, recognize that QC is a completely different flavor profile. If you get the R-M cabs, and you like them, then maybe you should try a QC to see if you like it. The list is not a hard get. I was on it for years and stopped buying because I owned too much of it and they still offer some to me.
TL - you need to follow Neal’s advice, find a bottle of the red with 3-8 years (more is better) and drink it before taking a slot
The wine is very unique and hits people very differently when they drink it. Some love it. Others hate it. It is one of the rare, truly binary result wines out there.
I was on the list for many years, have had the wine many many times and finally sold all of mine as my tastes have changed.
The CVR is a very concentrated, powerful, oaky and tannic red. I find it almost undrinkable in the early years, but I recently opened a 2006 and it has finally started to emerge into a nice place.
So my personal take is that if you can hold off on them for a good amount of time, they are pretty good QPR in the powerhouse cab category.
QC is very concentrated, powerful and heavily oaked. I find a lot of wood and a lot of tannin in the early years, with the exception of the Palengat Red Wine, which is softer.
The wine is not fruity, sweet, milkshake, burning with alcohol, or anything like that (though those are sort of the reflexive descriptors partisans of the other style use to describe different wines, and so i’m sure you’ll see them used to describe QC out there). To me, it’s just really tannic and oaked when the wine is younger. I think they probably turn the corner eventually, maybe at 12+ years for the cabernet and 8-10 years for the CVR/Red Wine, though with younger wines than that, there is always a question mark and people wondering whether the transformation will occur or if the wines are made differently now and the aging result will be different.
The general style is fairly typical for Washington cabernets, I think.
I like their CVR, and have opened one from 2007-2011 each time they’re delivered. I don’t think the CVR is too heavily oaked or too sweet. Actually, I think they’re great QPRs. It’s strange, because I’m an old world kind of guy and have been purchasing mostly Burgs… but there’s something about QC’s basic CVR that I enjoy.
Pretty much why I stopped buying after the '06 vintage. However, I can also say this is the reason I have stopped buying most cabs, along with the fact my palate no longer finds them that intriguing. Glad there are plenty of varietals to choose from, so we can all enjoy what we drink.