Two thousand and two marked the second vintage for Walla Walla’s Cougar Crest. The winery produced 4,000 cases of wine that year and began its meteoric rise. Winemaker Debbie Hansen received high Wine Spectator scores in that vintage for her Syrah (94 points), Reserve Syrah (90 points), Merlot (90 points), Cabernet Franc (90 points), and Cabernet (89 points). Those scores and subsequent ones, combined with a strong word from Gary Vaynerchuck on Wine Library TV, brought the winery to the present day where it has a new, multi-million dollar facility on the way in to Walla Walla and a second label, Walla Walla River Winery.

While the 2002 Cabernet is clearly no longer at its peak, it is drinking well and appears to have at least a couple of years left in it.