Garrison Creek Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon - 2002

Okay, I am on a roll and it is all about Cabernet Sauvignon - -

It’s been a long time coming, but we are finally seeing wines for purchase from Garrison Creek Cellars. If you read my blog on Garrison Creek Winery - An Exercise In Perseverance, you will remember the five year battle that owner and Walla Walla native, Michael Murr went through for his winery to receive the same treatment as the rest of the wineries in Walla Walla County. The battle is now slowly fading into the sunset and Michael will be victorious. In spite of the frustrations that the winery was put through by the county, the wine did not suffer.

I had an opportunity to enjoy a bottle of Garrison Creek Cellars Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon - 2002. Pouring the dark liquid into my glass from the long slender and distinct bottle, I could immediately smell the aroma from the Cabernet. A nose of chocolate and bramble berries. I was "warned" ahead of time that I would be seduced by the velvety liquid. Indeed. It was dark, fudgy and yummy. Reminded me of a fresh-baked fudge brownie with walnuts with a side of raspberry coulee. It was dense, well balanced and yet one could probably lay down for a couple of years - - but why? Enjoy it now.

Visiting with Michael, I told him how much I enjoyed the Cabernet and loved the dense and "chocolatety" characteristics of this wine. Of course, he reminded me that it was a 2002 vintage and they discovered that it's best not to release a wine immediately - give it some time in the bottle. So in a sense, Garrison Creek is going to do the aging for the customer. My way of thinking on this is that the wine is going to have more characteristics of an Old World wine and less of the jammy-fruit bombs that often see in New World wines. But then again - - since when have Walla Walla wineries been known to produce a lot of jammy fruit-bomb Cabernet Sauvignons?

Garrison Creek Cellars wines can be found at Walla Walla Wine Woman.