Col Solare is a partnership of the titans in wine between the Antinori family (one of the most famous families of Tuscany) and Chateau St. Michelle. Starting with their first vintage in 1995, Col Solare’s mission has been to amalgamate these two distinct viticultural and winemaking backgrounds to create a fantastic Cabernet Sauvignon-based red wine from choice Red Mountain fruit. The result is one of the finest and most consistent Washington Red blends.
Col Solare has a gorgeous tasting room in Chateau St. Michelle Winery and an even more gorgeous setting on Red Mountain. They are appointment only, but offer a really fantastic retrospective of their wines. Their tasting room in eastern Washington offers gorgeous panoramas of Red Mountain and is a wold class facility where you can try one of Washington's great wines.
Until recently Col Solare made only two wines. Their signature blend, Col Solare, is typically made from around 70 percent Cabernet, depending on the vintage. Their second wine is called Shining Hill and is better than many winery's first wines. They also now have a special wine for their wine club called their 'Collector's Society' Red Wine, as well as Component Collection wines that showcase individual varietals such as Syrah and Malbec. Last year's 2014 Component Collection Malbec (WWB, 94) was the best Washington Malbec that I have ever reviewed. Col Solare will release their new red wine next month but I had a chance to sample the wine at Taste Washington last weekend. The 2014 Col Solare Red Wine (WWB, 95) is an absolutely scintillating release that is among the best Col Solare wines that I have sampled in the past near 20 vintages. This wine is a massive, cellar-worthy Cabernet blend that shows incredible poise, viscosity and mouthfeel. I also sampled their 2014 Col Solare 'Collector's Society' Red Wine (WWB, 94) which was a rich and decadent treat comprised of equal parts Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon. Learn more about Col Solare at https://www.colsolare.com Here are the absolutely stunning new Col Solare wines to be released in April 2017.
2014 Col Solare Red Wine- This gorgeous wine is up there with some of the best Col Solare releases that I have sampled in the past 20 years. This intense, massive and brooding deep-hued wine is a classic effort by the superstar winemaking team of winemaker Darel Allwine and assistant winemaker Will Wiles at Col Solare. Dense, firm and masculine, this monster of a wine awakens with aromatics of black tea, sandalwood, black cherry, creme de cassis and Turkish coffee. The nose reminds me of the incredible 2013 bottling. There are decadent flavors of black tea, black olive, mocha, allspice and suggestions of dark chocolate shavings. Polished, smooth and absolutely scintillating, this is another stunner by Col Solare and their superstar winemaking team. Give this at least a two hour decant before enjoying. Drink 2018-2033- 95
2014 Col Solare 'Collector's Society' Red Wine- A blend of 50% Cabernet and 50% Malbec, this is a wine club only wine by Col Solare. There are rich and intense aromatics of black cherry, black olive and mocha with sagebrush accents. There are dense flavors of black cherry, anise, creme de cassis, mocha and hints of pipe tobacco with green bell pepper. This is an absolute stunner with a graphite edge and an exceedingly long finish. This will need at least a one hour decant if enjoying young. Drink 2017-2033- 94