2017 Cabernet Sauvignon

Tasting Notes

This new vintage is turning out to be a stunner. Leading with graphite, pencil shavings, tobacco leaf and dark cherry. We started harvest on September 29th with our estate Malbec from Bob Healy Vineyard and ended on October 24th with Petit Verdot from our estate McQueen Vineyard. The 2017 has fine grained mid palate richness with an uber long finish. Across the board, the vintage has an incredible freshness to the wines as well. I would give this wine two more years in the bottle before opening or decant and watch it develop in the glass for an awesome experience. Drink 2022–2042.

Vintage Notes

2017 started out relatively cool in the valley and we saw an average to later bud break. When compared to the year prior, 2016, bud break seemed much later than it was. Mild temperatures followed into bloom but then caught up as we saw above average temperatures in July and August. Of note, heading in to September, there were a number of Canadian wild fires that pushed smoke high in the air over the Walla Walla Valley creating a shade effect without influencing the grapes, and we saw ZERO smoke taint. The shade, however, slowed down ripening and allowed us to retain natural acid as the forecasted 100-degree days were only allowed to get into the mid 80s. The resulting wines were ripe, had slightly larger tannin structures than the year previous, and had great natural acid and freshness. Overall very high quality.

Join Wine Allocation

It’s amazing to realize that the 2017 vintage marks the beginning of our second decade of Doubleback. It has been quite a ride starting with our good friend Chris Figgins helping us with every aspect of the business. We will always recognize the amazing good fortune we had in having Chris guide us through those formative years. The 2014 vintage marked the transition from Chris to his long-time protege, Josh McDaniels—almost six years ago. I have marveled at watching Josh and his team continue to improve the wines year after year. The 2017 vintage is the culmination of all that we have learned in our first decade. Josh has continued to develop his intimate relationship with our estate vineyards; McQueen, Bob Healy, Flying B, and Lefore. Aging the 2017 vintage in our new facility has allowed him to check in on the wines more regularly and watch them develop. Finally, it fell to my wife Maura and I to help put together the final blend. It is honestly an extremely difficult task to come up with the final composition. All of the wines that make it into the blending trials are exceptional but only the very best of the best can make the final blend. I know you will love the 2017 Doubleback vintage. The wines were made with all the passion and attention to detail you deserve.
– Note from Drew

Technical Notes