Charles & Charles Red Wine 2010

Review:

Charles & Charles Winery - A collaboration founded in 2008 between Food & Wine Magazine 2009 Winemaker of the year, Charles Smith (K Vintners, Charles Smith Wines) and Charles Bieler (Three Thieves, BIELER Pere et Fils, Sombra mezcal). The label is an abstract play on the American Flag done by the well loved and historic Nashville, TN poster shop, Hatch Show Print.

50% cabernet sauvignon and 50% syrah. All the fruit is grown in the Wahluke Slope AVA (Columbia Valley) by the Milbrandt family. The wine is dark, almost black, with a brooding nose of blackberry, cranberry, tobacco and sweet oak. The fruit carries through on the palette where you also find great texture, soft tannins and a long finish. The cabernet sauvignon was raised in 1-3 year old French oak barrels and the syrah was fermented and aged in stainless steel.