2015 Passing Time Cabernet Sauvignon
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Tasting notes
The 2015 Walla Walla Valley Cabernet Sauvignon is a bold, dramatic wine that bursts from the glass with aromas of ripe black fruits, mocha and toasty new oak. On the palate, it's rich, full-bodied and chewy, carrying a considerable payload of grippy structure and extract that's only partially concealed by its lavishly ripe core of fruit and fruit liqueur. While I'd like to see a lighter touch here, it may well improve with short-term cellaring, and it must be accounted a success in its style.
Critic scores
Average Score
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
Jeb Dunnuck
More reviews and scores
From a site in the Walla Walla Valley, the 100% Cabernet Sauvignon 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon WW spent 20 months in 60% new French oak. It offers terrific complexity in its blackcurrant, tobacco, damp earth, and chocolatey spice aromas and flavors. Deep, broad, and expansive, it's a silky, pure, awesomely balanced 2015 that's the finest vintage of this cuvée to date. A collaboration between Football Stars Dan Marino and Damon Huard, with the wines made by Chris Peterson (of Avennia), Passing Time releases four Cabernet Sauvignon dominated cuvees, each from a specific Washington State appellation. All four are brilliant wines that check-in near the top of the vintage.
(mostly Cabernet Sauvignon from Champoux and Discovery vineyards): Bright, saturated medium ruby. Alluring violet lift to the mouthfilling aromas of cassis, black cherry, violet, licorice and black olive. Silky, fine-grained and light on its feet, offering a plush, edge-free texture to the flavors of cassis, cocoa powder and coriander. Terrific, lightly saline vinosity and peppery lift here. A classic, elegantly styled Cabernet in an Old World style, finishing suave and very long, with noble tannins, restrained sweetness and terrific lift. Impeccably balanced wine.