2010 Andrew Will Red Two Blondes Vineyard

Starting the 2010s and from a warmer, windy terroir located in the western part of Yakima Valley, the 2010 Two Blondes Vineyard is made from a blend of 43% Merlot, 38% Cabernet Sauvignon, 17% Cabernet Franc and a splash of Malbec that spent 21 months in barrel. Its ruby, semi-opaque color is followed by a medium-bodied, elegant effort that has notions of red plums, underbrush, licorice and cedar on both the nose and palate. Finesse oriented, yet reserved aromatically at the moment (especially when compared to the 2009), it should flesh out nicely with another year or two of bottle age and drink well for 7-8 years after that. Drink now-2020. Made by Chris Camarda from his base on Vashon Island just west of Seattle, Andrew Will Cellars delivers classic, elegant wines that show solid typicity and age-worthy profiles. His 2010s are superb across the board and possess slightly reserved aromatics with firm, pure textures. Downright backwards, especially when compared to his 2009s, they will all benefit from short- term cellaring and, I suspect, these scores will seem a bit low once they flesh out. His 2011s had just been bottled at the time of this tasting, so I opted to review them as barrel samples and give ranges for the scores. They all showed more up-front, perfumed and supple profiles, yet I think they will close down slightly over the coming year as they settle in bottle. Chris believes his 2011s might surpass his 2010s. Tel. (206) 463-9227; www.andrewwill.com