A few weeks back I had the wonderful opportunity to go back into time and taste through the entire lineup of Woodward Canyon ‘Artist Series’ Cabernet Sauvignon wines, starting with the 1992 vintage. This was a truly special tasting with eminent producer Rick Small, alongside his family and current winemaker Kevin Moss. Rick was a self-taught winemaker who crafted world-acclaimed wines back in the 1990s and helped build a national brand as Woodward Canyon is one of the most recognized producers of Washington wine in the nation. Rick initially became interested in winemaking in the 1970s with his friend and Walla Walla wine pioneer of Leonetti Fame, Gary Figgins. Fast forward to 2003, Rick hired Kevin Mott to serve as winemaker and help with the production. Mott, himself, has crafted some simply stunning wines since he has come to Woodward Canyon.
One of the best parts of this tasting was to hear the commentary from Rick Small and Kevin Mott which I have provided. They showed some very special insight not only into the wines and winemaking but also the vintages in general. I had several personal highlights of this tasting. Some of the older vintages showed marvelously and the 1994 Woodward Canyon ‘Artist Series’ Cabernet Sauvignon (WWB, 93) was one of the simply magical older wines made by the talented Rick Small. Remarkably this wine still has a long life ahead of it in the cellar. Another total hit was the 1998 ‘Artist Series’ Cabernet Sauvignon (WWB, 92) which was still loaded with fruit and showed a vibrant acid backbone which makes me think that the wine will cellar for another decade or more. Similarly the 1999 ‘Artist Series’ Cabernet Sauvignon (WWB, 93) is a stunning wine that has tremendous freshness and energy. This, too, has a very long life ahead of it.
The 2000s showed a ton of home run ‘Artist Series’ bottlings. The 2002 ‘Artis Series’ Cabernet Sauvignon (WWB, 93) truly holds true to what is one of my favorite all time vintages in Washington. Simply put, this wine has it all from mouthfeel to tension to viscosity. The 2005 ‘Artist Series’ (WWB, 93) and the 2007 ‘Artist Series’ (WWB, 94) are some of the most compelling wines of this tasting and both also come from heralded vintages in Washington. The ’05 shows quite true to the vintage with deep dark fruits while the ’07 is slightly more pretty with better finesse and elegance but still maintaining a deep core.
I was amazed by the 2010 ‘Artist Series’ Cabernet Sauvignon (WWB, 92) which showed really good richness and balance. This is truly one of the great wines made in this vintage. Other highlights were the elegant 2012 ‘Artist Series’ (WWB, 93) and the more hedonistic 2014 ‘Artis Series’ (WWB, 94) which were both simply marvelous efforts from great vintages in Washington. Learn more about Woodward Canyon at https://www.woodwardcanyon.com Here are the vintage notes and tasting notes from my very special Woodward Canyon ‘Artist Series’ Cabernet Sauvignon vertical tasting.
1992 Vintage:
Rick Small: “The 1992 vintage was pretty warm and it wasn’t as cool as ’91. We had some issues with the ’91 winter. This was the first vintage that we sourced from the Canoe Ridge Vineyard as they were 3 year old vines. I think Canoe Ridge didn’t even label their wine as a Canoe Ridge Vineyard wine. I think that the alcohol would have been in the mid-13s if we would have waited more and I thought that the flavors were nice when we picked.”
1992 Woodward Canyon ‘Artist Series' Cabernet Sauvignon- The 1992 ‘Artist Series’ is a blend of 79% Cabernet Sauvignon with the remainder Merlot. On the nose there are dried herbs and red cherry candy on the nose. The palate shows good freshness despite its age. Lighter red and dark fruits combine on the palate with good acidity as this has a Bordelaise edge. Only 304 cases made of this beautiful wine. Enjoy this in the short-term. Drink 2019-2023- 90
1993 Vintage:
Rick Small: “In1993 the Canoe Ridge vineyard was managed by Pat Tucker and he decided to shut the water down ad the vineyard went into a stall because of the sand content in the vineyard. This was a warm vintage for Cabernet Sauvignon and the plants stopped growing because of the lack of water. The long story short was we needed to water quite a bit and got the plants recover a bit. I liked the ’93 but we were very fortunate because of the watering issue because it could have been a train wreck.”
1993 Woodward Canyon ‘Artist Series' Cabernet Sauvignon- The 1993 Woodward Canyon ‘Artist Series’ weighs in 12.9% alcohol and was 100% Cabernet Sauvignon. The nose shows good sagebrush and dark fruit aromas with a touch of chocolate. The wine shows a great freshness and verve despite its age. Blackberry pie, red cherry pie, sagebrush, mocha and cassis flavors all come together marvelously. Delicious now, this still has another decade. Drink 2019-2029- 92
1994 Vintage:
Kevin Mott: “This was a small cluster vintage in general and you can tell looking at the wine that the fruit was riper. The ‘Artist Series’ is all Canoe Ridge fruit. This was the first vintage where things got really ripe in the vineyard and there was a small berry size. We had better irrigation management in general and in the ‘80s the vines were big and vigorous beasts but now we were doing a better job with the irrigation. As winemakers we didn’t realize as much about farming and we weren’t in the vineyards as much back then but that would change.”
Rick Small: “If you think about the vineyards, most people who planted the vineyards weren’t winemakers and they were diversified farmers and were looking for all kind of crops so the concept of managing irrigation and crops was different. When you were making wine, even Concord grapes, you were paid in tonnage, so this was a different way to understand farming and irrigation. Back then we didn’t always know we were getting the right grapes and we trusted the farmer a lot more back then as they helped with testing the sugar levels when we harvested.”
1994 Woodward Canyon ‘Artist Series' Cabernet Sauvignon- The 1994 ‘Artist Series’ has 13.2% Merlot blended in to the Cabernet Sauvignon. The wine was aged in French and American oak prior to bottling. The wine opens with a beautiful bouquet of sagebrush, red bell pepper, anise and cassis. The mouthfeel and texture to the wine is really beautiful. There is a bright salinity through the wine that connects with the earthy tones as well as bright red and dark fruit flavors with a touch of chocolate towards the back end. This dense wine still has a long life ahead of it. Drink 2019-2029- 93
1995 Vintage:
Rick Small: “1995 was a big challenge for us as a vintage and we had ripeness issues. This made it hard for us to get quality fruit because of the coolness of the vintage. We harvested at the end of October which was a good thing but there were still green qualities in the wine.”
1995 Woodward Canyon ‘Artist Series' Cabernet Sauvignon- The wine shows good freshness and intensity with elegance. Medium bodied red fruit flavors with sagebrush all combine. This is drinking at its peak. Drink 2019-2022- 89
1996 Vintage:
Rick Small: 1996 was unfortunately a freeze year and we weren’t able to source from the Champoux Vineyard so we didn’t make an ‘Old Vines’ Cabernet Sauvignon. The 1996 ‘Artist Series’ has 5% Merlot from Sagemoor Farms and I can tell on the nose of this wine that there is a bit of Merlot. The big thing there is you have issues with new shoots following a freeze the new growth doesn’t always produce the right flavors that you want.”
1996 Woodward Canyon ‘Artist Series' Cabernet Sauvignon- The 1996 ‘Artist Series’ has 5% Merlot blended in from the Canoe Ridge vineyard. The nose shows graphite and dried herbs with dark fruits and a touch of smoke. The mouthfeel here is beautiful. The palate has good freshness and balance with red and dark fruits with herbal tones. Drink 2019-2025- 91
1997 VIntage:
Kevin Mott: “For Washington State I wasn’t a fan of this vintage. It was great in California but ’98 I think was a better vintage for us in Washington. The vineyards I was working with at that point had uneven ripening and that was the curse of a lesser vintage. If you can’t get the even ripening and if bloom time is spread out then the clusters don’t develop evenly. ’97 was warm and things happened too quickly which was a big problem. In a cooler vintage you can make up for that but 1997 wasn’t my favorite vintage.”
Rick Small “I have similar thoughts of the vintage. 1995 and ’97 were cooler vintages and I felt that maybe we should have picked a bit more late for more ripeness but the wine tracks the style of what the Canoe Ridge Vineyard wines were like. This particular wine was the first year that we started using fruit from another place. When I smell the ’97 I think that it might have been picked a touch too soon. All things said I think we have a good wine here.”
1997 Woodward Canyon ‘Artist Series' Cabernet Sauvignon- The 1997 ‘Artist Series’ Cabernet Sauvignon was aged for 18 months in French oak prior to bottling. The nose is quite powerful here with blackberry cobbler, creme de cassis and Turkish coffee with tar accents. The palate has good freshness with black tea, blackberry cobbler, mocha and crushed mint. This has an exotic edge. Drink 2019-2025- 91
1998 Vintage:
Rick Small: “I considered 1998 to be a warm vintage compared to ’99. We didn’t have any trouble with ripeness in this vintage. Harvest was pretty normal in October. This was the first vintage that we used Pepper Bridge vineyard fruit. After ’94 farmers and winemakers realized that they needed to be more involved with the processes of the vineyard and that it was good to have some riper fruit. Around this time Wine Spectator were scoring the wines and the wine that were fuller and riper were getting the bigger scores. That is how the winemaking went to have the fruit hang longer.”
Kevin Mott ‘Because of the farming improving that led to vineyards having an open canopy and more even ripening in the vineyard. Some of the early 1990 vintages we had a roller coaster on yields. The wines were less ripe because there were too many tons per acre which was the farming wisdom throughout Washington State. But that would soon change.”
1998 Woodward Canyon ‘Artist Series' Cabernet Sauvignon- This beautiful wine shows red cherry cough syrup, mocha, graphite and anise with sagebrush and red bell pepper accents that build in the glass. The mouthfeel here is gorgeous as the wine shows black tea, Asian spice and cherry pie flavors. This is outstanding now and will evolve well for the next decade or more. Drink 2019-2029- 92
1999 Vintage:
Rick Small “I remember trying this wine when I was in Europe and I can recall that this reminded me of French wines. This was a very classic vintage. We made a special selection wine that year and it had very small fruit as the berries were very slow to ripe. Harvest was in late October. The wines from this vintage are more elegant. I think the reason why the ’99 was so good is the Canoe Ridge fruit elevated the wine. It gave it more of the elegant side and the cherry notes.”
Kevin Mott “1993 was our cooler growing season and we didn’t thin our crop like we did in ’99 so we really learned from the 1993 vintage. The growers learned from that mistake and the ’99 was the first year where we were dropping crops when there was a tonnage issue. 1993 was a year where things didn’t get ripe enough but ’99 was the year where the good growers were able to drop the crop and achieve good ripeness in their berries.”
1999 Woodward Canyon ‘Artist Series' Cabernet Sauvignon- The wine shows a beautiful nose with dark cherry liquor and sagebrush with tar accents. There is a marvelous purity of fruit to this elegant wine. This has really good balance and poise showing a great combination of dark and red fruits with herbal tones. With light tannins, this gorgeous wine is singing right now. Drink 2019-2029- 93
2000 Vintage:
Rick Small “Getting into this vintage we didn’t have any problems with ripening and based on what I am noticing in the wine I would have been happy to have the grapes hang a bit longer. The same thing is true with the ’97 In that I think we might have picked the grapes a tiny bit too early.”
Kevin Mott “I think the other thing that came into the wines was when we were getting a ton of brett and then that dumbs down fruit. Even if there was good ripe fruit at harvest then you lose some of that fruit character in the wine with the brett.”
2000 Woodward Canyon ‘Artist Series' Cabernet Sauvignon- The 2000 ‘Artist Series’ is a seriously good wine sourced from the Canoe Ridge, Champoux, Sagemoor and Connor Lee vineyards. There are nice herbal tones on the nose with dark cherry and coffee grounds. The mouthfeel and texture to this wine is really outstanding. Mocha, anise, red cherry tomato and blackberry jam flavors all marvelously combine. This is stunning now and has a long life ahead of it. Drink 2019-2033- 93
2001 Vintage:
Rick Small: “The 2001 vintage was very textbook and slightly cooler than 2000. The wines saw good ripening throughout the season. I remember that these wines showed well.”
Kevin Mott: “This 2001 shows some brett and the problem with brett is it can get out of control. You see that a bit with this wine.”
2001 Woodward Canyon ‘Artist Series' Cabernet Sauvignon- The nose is showing some plastic and herbal tones coming in first and dark fruits are added to the bouquet. The palate has good freshness and richness with mocha and creme de cassis flavors with herbal accents. The texture of this wine is seriously beautiful. Drink 2019-2025- 90
2002 Vintage:
Rick Small: “This was a really good vintage that had some excellent even ripening and the crops had good balance. All of the Sagemoor fruit went to the ‘Old Vines.’ This was a textbook year that really shows in the wine. I really like the structure in the 2002 wine. There is tannin but it is integrated well.”
Kevin Mott: “2002 was an unremarkable vintage where we had no problems at all which is the beauty of Washington where we have dry and warm vintages most years rather than Bordeaux. The wine here has grainy tannins which is really nice.”
2002 Woodward Canyon ‘Artist Series' Cabernet Sauvignon- The 2002 ‘Artist Series’ is a stunning wine by the talented Rick Small and has 10% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Franc blended in. On the nose this takes on a good combination of red and dark fruits with chocolate and coffee elements rounding out the aromatics. The palate has good richness and density with ripe red cherry compote, mocha, leather and anise flavors that come together marvelously. This has a long way to go. Drink 2019-2033- 93
2003 Vintage:
Rick Small: “This was a warmer vintage but there was good vineyard management and even ripening. We used more vineyards in this wine than we ever have. It was complicated going around and trying to sample all the vineyards and get the fruit in and make sure that we were doing everything correctly. That is part of the reason why over time we gravitated to our old standbys of Champoux, Sagemoor and the Woodward Estate fruit. I think that the Woodward Estate fruit adds to the herbal notes in the wine from the Cabernet Franc (6%).”
Kevin Mott:“Based on the total heat units this was the warmest vintage we had seen at the time and it was consistently warm. We had days that are were hot but not extremely hot as the vines can’t do anything when the temperature was over 102. The vines will just shut down and get in a holding pattern. We had a lot of nice warm days but not the extreme days. Sagemoor Block 9 which was first planted in 1972 shows up in the wine and I can see it adding character to the wine.”
2003 Woodward Canyon ‘Artist Series' Cabernet Sauvignon- The 2003 ‘Artist Series’ Cabernet Sauvignon is a gorgeous wine that is showing marvelously at sixteen years of age. The wine is a blend of 89% Cabernet Sauvignon with smaller portions Cabernet Franc and Merlot. The wine shows blackberry cobbler, mocha and leather on the nose. The palate is very rich and shows a tremendous texture. Mocha, anise, red bell pepper and creme de cassis falters all marvelously come together. Light tannins line this excellent bottling. Seductive and beautiful now, this will cellar well for the next fifteen years. Drink 2019-2033- 93
2005 Vintage:
Rick Small: “This was a really nice, warm vintage and we made good wines. We made a special selection that year and the Artist Series also turned out really well-made. This was Kevin’s third vintage with us and I think he made a great wine.”
Kevin Mott: “Within clusters we had really good uniform ripeness. As I was walking around in the vineyards I would pick berries across clusters and normally there will be some berries in the cluster that weren’t as good but in 2005 it was rare to have a bad berry. Good ripeness made a great wine. Harvest was slightly earlier. Champoux fruit showed great that year and Sagemoor as well, this had Block 9 which first showed in the 2003 vintage. Those are rock solid blocks for us. Now we are also seeing a lot of these vineyards that have age and you get more a textural and mouthfeel component with those older blocks. You get the same sugar level but these wines in the mouth will have a lot more texture to them.”
2005 Woodward Canyon ‘Artist Series' Cabernet Sauvignon- The 2005 ‘Aritst Series’ is a spectacular showing from this great vintage. That was sourced from the Sagemoor, Champoux, Klipsun and Tapteil Vineyards. A100% Cabernet Sauvignon wine, this opens with heady aromatics of wild blackberry cobbler, mocha, crushed mint and dark chocolate pie. The palate is plush and decadent with creme de cassis, dill, mocha and Turkish coffee flavors. Downright delicious now this will continue to evolve well for the next decade or more. Drink 2019-2023- 93
2006 Vintage:
Kevin Mott: “Syrah was blended into this wine because it can elevate the other fruit aromas but I try this in many vintages. Sometimes there is a synergy where the Syrah brings up the other aromas. I try it on almost every vintage that we do and if it improves it I will use it. I think this was the first vintage where we used that much. I was not happy with the vintage in general so I was working hare rot Gert the wine where I wanted it to be. We had these heat spikes which hit Champoux and normally it is not a warm site but the weather pattern hit that just right and it was stifling 110 to 114 degree heats for three to four days which cooked the fruit aromas a bit. When I did the Syrah trial it worked out and it was from DuBrul Vineyard in the Yakima Valley.”
2006 Woodward Canyon ‘Artist Series' Cabernet Sauvignon- The 2006 Woodward Canyon ‘Artist Series’ Cabernet Sauvignon is a silky bend of 86% Cabernet Sauvignon with 13% Syrah and a touch of Merlot. The nose is a bit more reticent with dark fruits with chocolate aromatics. The texture to this wine is fantastic and beautifully coats the mid-palate. The palate has good richness with black fruits that connect with sagebrush and milk chocolate flavors. Drink 2019-2029- 92
2007 Vintage:
Kevin Mott: “This was a really good vintage for us and it might not be quite as good as 2005 quality but the vintage itself was really good.”
Rick Small: “I think that is what we want in the Artist Series with the ‘07, it is a classic example. It has all the nice things that are integrated well. It has great color, aromatics, texture and everything is in balance and proportion. One of the things that I enjoy a lot in wine is having good integration, oak and fruit and tannin, having everything there together. I think our wines generally exhibit those characteristics but ’07 is a really good example of that.”
2007 Woodward Canyon ‘Artist Series' Cabernet Sauvignon- The wine was almost entirely sourced from Champoux Vineyard. Weighing in at 14.6% alcohol, this Cabernet wine opens with a bouquet of graphite, anise, creme de cassis and mocha. The mouthfeel here is wonderful with dark fruits that connect with the graphite edge and the faintest herbal tones. Moderately tannic, this will continue to age for the next fifteen years. Drink 2019-2033- 94
2008 Vintage:
Kevin Mott: “2008 was a good vintage for Washington. Early on I was not as pleased and coming off 2007 having the brightness of the vintage, I though the vintage might be a step down. But over time I think this vintage showed well.
Rick Small: “I was in Atlanta years ago selling this wine and they were blown away with the 2008 wines. I think that this wine is outstanding and this has a great aromatic lift. It is showing nicely at over ten years old now.”
2008 Woodward Canyon ‘Artist Series' Cabernet Sauvignon- This beautiful wine is a blend of 90% Cabernet Sauvignon with smaller parts Petit Verdot and Syrah. The wine shows a lifted aromas of rose petals with black fruits and creme de cassis with a hint of tar. The palate shows incredible freshness and verve, with a wonderful mouthfeel. Light tannins line concentrated dark fruits with a. chocolate edge. This finishes exceedingly long. Drink 2019-2033- 93
2009 Vintage:
Kevin Mott: “This was a warm vintage but I think that there is less bright fruit because of that and more heat. I think there might be a touch step back in the quality of the wines compared to 2007 and 2008. In terms of fruit character ripeness there is not my favorite. Trying the 2005 and 2007 and ’08 it is a bit of a step back. I think that the heat spikes from the vintage influenced this. The vines actually will be wilting in those super hot day sand then the vintages tend to be not quite as good. You feel the clusters and it is hot. Normally when the plant is under full respiration the cluster tends to be cool. If you feel a cluster and it is warm then the vine is not able to do what it needs to do.”
Rick Small: “I think that the problem with these triple digit years is that the vines shut down. The plant starts and then stops and does a lot better in the mid-90 temperatures but those warm vintage do impact the flavor profiles in the wine. This vintage helped us figure out what we can do to help the plants and we prefer not having the plant go through that kind of stress. This vintage helped prompt others to figure out what kind of things we can do to take better care of our plants with the heat spikes.”
2009 Woodward Canyon ‘Artist Series' Cabernet Sauvignon- The 2009 ‘Artist Series’ is a gorgeous blend of 76% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13% Cabernet Franc, 5% Merlot, 5% Petit Verdot and 1% Syrah. The wine shows decadent dark fruits with chlorate and roasted figs on the nose. The palate shows good ripeness and density with a hedonistic edge. Black tea, blackberry pie and mocha flavors all come together marvelously. Moderately tannic, this will age beautifully for another decade. Drink 2019-2029- 92
2010 Vintage:
Rick Small: “In 2010 didn’t make an ‘Old Vines’ Cabernet and this year and everything that we had went into this wine. When the vintages are perfect, it is almost like effortless and it is not ever easy but this one was a challenge. We went back and tried a lot of wines from cooler vintages to try to figure out what to do with the vintage.
Kevin Mott: “This was the first cooler vintage that we had. We had smaller clusters similar to 1999 and there were also good ripening even though it was a long, drawn out ripening. You got intense flavors and aromatically and structure wise, I like this wine. These wines show better with time. With the cooler vintages you have to be very carful with vineyard management. You have to spend more time in the vineyard but this year we spent a ton of time managing our crops. We had an acreage contract so we had to do a lot of thinning in the vineyard this year. In the past it was hard to ask the grower to thin extremely hard. In1993 they didn’t want to do that because it was a tonnage contract but we learned from that and switched over to paying by the acre. That has worked well for us.”
2010 Woodward Canyon ‘Artist Series' Cabernet Sauvignon- Largely Cabernet Sauvignon (84%) the 2010 ‘Artist Series’ cabernet sauvignon is a seriously good effort from this cooler vintage. On the nose this takes on anise, sagebrush and black tea on the nose. Moderately tannic, this elegant Cabernet wine has a silky mouthfeel and shows medium bodied dark fruit flavors that connect with chocolate , pipe tobacco and roasted date tones. This is just coming into its own as this will cellar well for the next fifteen years. Drink 2019-2033- 92
2011 Vintage:
Rick Small: “This was a compressed vintage because we had a winter event before this and vines didn’t have enough time to harden off. We went into the winter after 2010 and had brutally cold weather. That hurt us and we lost a lot of our vines and the only wine that we were able to make from our estate vines was an estate reserve Cabernet Franc. The vintage ended being the coolest on record.”
Kevin Mott: “2011 was a challenge from a farming standpoint and we had to do a lot of work to prevent mildew.”
2011 Woodward Canyon ‘Artist Series' Cabernet Sauvignon- The 2011 ‘Artist Series’ is a compelling blend of 83% Cabernet Sauvignon with 7% Cabernet Franc, 7% Syrah, 2% Petit Verdot and 1% Merlot. This was sourced from a host of vineyards including Champoux, Canoe Ridge, Sagemoor, Woodward Canyon Estate, Hedges, Andrews, Spring Creek, Weinbau and Mirage. The wine opens with ripe dark berry with sagebrush and red bell pepper aromas. This shows impressive mid-palate ripeness considering the coolness of the vintage. Mocha, red bell pepper, red cherry and anise flavors all come together marvelously. This is a spectacular effort from a challenging vintage. Drink 2019-2027- 91
2012 Vintage:
Rick Small: “There was a lot of Woodward Canyon vineyard fruit that was blended into this wine. I think the weight of the wine wasn’t quite as heavy but I think this is a really good, elegant wine. I really enjoy this wine. I think this is slightly leaner and the mouthfeel is not as viscous and I like that about the wine. I think that this is a wine that stays within itself and it is not over the top. This was a larger vintage for us and we had to do a good job with managing yields.”
Kevin Mott: “There are really good berry fruit aromatics in this wine. I really thought that this was a wonderful vintage for us, as it just so easy to make good wine. I think the wine brings some really good acidity with tart red cherry in the mouth.”
2012 Woodward Canyon ‘Artist Series' Cabernet Sauvignon- The 2012 ‘Artist Series’ is a fantastic blend of 76% Cabernet Sauvignon with the remainder Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Syrah. The wine opens with a bright bouquet of dried herbs, coffee grounds, red cherry puree and wild blackberry pie. The palate shows incredible balance and poise with good richness. Dark fruits and red fruits mingle with chocolate, all leading to an exceedingly long finish. Drink 2019-2033- 93
2013 Vintage:
Rick Small: “This year we wanted to have more Petit Verdot blended in that we liked. I think the theme here is to create respectful winemaking and we try to do what we can to reflect that in tie wines. You want the wines to reflect the vineyards that you have. When you have Sagemoor and Champoux and Woodward vineyards, we want the wine to show that and I think we have accomplished that with this warm vintage wine.”
Kevin Mott: “There is a textural element to the Petit Verdot that I really like with this wine. This was a warm vintage and once again we have so many warm vintages in a row. ’13 was warmer than ’12 but you still see some higher acidity in the wine. Overall the vineyards did well this year. We have a style here and we have to blend 100 different lots which makes this selection challenging. The first selection goes to ‘Old Vines’ Cabernet Sauvignon and then next to our ‘Artist Series.’ The blending to these wines always changes.”
2013 Woodward Canyon ‘Artist Series' Cabernet Sauvignon- This beautiful wine, largely Cabernet based (87%), was sourced from the Champoux, Sagemoor, Woodward Canyon Estate, Carbonneau, Discovery, Spring Creek and Summit View vineyards. The wine has really good freshness and verve with dark berry and mocha flavors. Forward and decadent, with moderate tannins, this is a gorgeous Cabernet right now but will evolve marvelously over the next fifteen years. Drink 2019-2033- 93
2014 Vintage:
Rick Small: "I really enjoy this vintage. I think the 2014 ‘Old Vines’ might be a bit better than how this is showing but I really enjoy this vintage. This was another warm vintage and similar to 2013. ’14 I think that the wine didn’t quite taste like it came from a warm vintage just like 2013. I think that the plants reacted to the heat more favorably.”
Kevin Mott: “I think 2014 was a warm year but it was long, steady heat. It didn’t have the heat spikes. Plants had a hard time with 2015 but didn’t have an issue in 2014.”
2014 Woodward Canyon ‘Artist Series' Cabernet Sauvignon- Nearly all Cabernet Sauvignon (92%), this opens with sweet pipe tobacco, mocha, anise, and creme de cassis with blueberry pie aromatics that all build in the glass. The palate is plush and decadent, showing a hedonistic bent but good balance. Dark cherry cough syrup, mocha, anise and blueberry pie flavors all marvelously combine on the palate. Showing a great combination of weight and freshness this is a stunning effort by Woodward Canyon. Drink 2019-2040- 94
2015 Vintage:
Kevin Mott: “2015 was the earliest vintage I have seen and in August 13th we were picking Sauvignon Blanc. Sugar wise things got ripe really quickly. We were done picking Cabernet Sauvignon on September first at the Woodward Canyon Estate. I am surprised with these wines. As the wines had more time, they get better. The tannins weren’t resolved and the tannin maturation is related to veraison which was really compressed. We left this wine in barrel six to eight months longer which rounded out the tannin. We had to change how we reacted to the wines in the cellar.”
2015 Woodward Canyon ‘Artist Series' Cabernet Sauvignon- The 2015 Woodward Canyon ‘Artist Series’ Cabernet Sauvignon is the 24th edition of this wine. The wine was aged for 22. Months in French oak prior to bottling. This opens. With a bouquet of dill, red bell pepper, anise and dark berries. The palate is plush showing a good richness. Mocha, anise, creme de cassis and blackberry flavors all combine. This is beautiful now and will cellar well for another decade. Drink 2019-2029- 92