The fun thing about tasting different wines is it allows you to figure out what you like. And what you don’t…

Columbia Crest is a mega-producer with national reach. For perspective, Columbia Crest made 295,500 cases of their 2005 Grand Estates Merlot. How they made that wine so enjoyable at that quantity and price point I will never understand.

The winery is located in Paterson, Washington and has a twenty-five year history of winemaking. The winery makes a number of different wine tiers including Two Vines, Grand Estates, and Reserve wines. The H3 wines – for Horse Heaven Hills – sits in between the Grand Estates and reserve wines.

This is the second year of the H3 label which the winery recently announced it was taking national. While I enjoyed the previous vintage, I found the 2006 disappointing. Alas…

Please join me in posting your notes and letting me know what you thought of this wine. Also let me know if you have suggestions for next month’s wine.

Wines:

Score

Name

Notes

$

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Columbia Crest H3 Cabernet Sauvignon Horse Heaven Hills 2006

A fairly good nose marked by black cherry, black pepper, coffee, and earth aromas. The taste is disappointing, especially on the mid-palate. While there are some decent oak and coffee notes, the wine is quite sharp and thin at points on the palate. These aspects seemed more pronounced over time. 14.2% alcohol.

$20