Columbia Crest's 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve displays more dark berry sap than the corresponding 2009 and while a bit sweet-sour (a more serious issue in 2007), it offers a less awkward integration of its obvious new oak. Its tannins are grainy but not obtrusive and there is an attractive underlying bittersweetness of nuts and herbs. Above all, there is vigor to the finish for all of the sweetness of fruit and caramelized wood. Enjoy it over the next year or two. Columbia Crest is a 2.5 million-case outgrowth of behemoth Ste Michelle, sharing fruit from Cold Creek, and based amid enormous riverside acreage not far from Ste Michelle's Canoe Ridge Three decades old, this winery is dedicated to a very distinctive style of wines that are treated according to a different methodology, inter alia involving assemblage prior to barreling down to do malo, and in the reserve wines the completion of primary fermentation in barrel. A native of Mendoza, Juan Munoz Oca joined the team here in 2003 and became head winemaker in 2011. His long-time predecessor in that position and only the second to hold it, Ray Einberger - now officially Winemaker Emeritus - thus had final say in the making of many of those wines I tasted on this occasion. "I'll be happy," notes Oca modestly but displaying confidence, "if at the end of my tenure nothing has dramatically changed in how people look at Columbia Crest." The winery portfolio is broken into three distinct groups: a so-called Grand Estates tier of inexpensive Chardonnay, Cabernet, and Merlot based on fruit from the Horse Heaven Hills and Wahluke Slope; an -H3- label based on fruit of those same three varieties from Alder Ridge, McKinley Springs, and Coyote Canyon in the Horse Heaven Hills; and a reserve tier featuring various blends that receive long elevage in all or nearly-all new barrels. Confitured fruit and prominent caramelized resin from (a hundred thousand!) barrels - even the inexpensive Cabernet gets one-third new wood, both French and American - are common denominators for most of the wines I tasted, and I am sure there are tasters for whom the styles here - especially in the reserve tier - will hold greater appeal than they did for me. And I could only recommend, modestly, a few of the whites I tasted. Even so, there are some imposing results in the entire Columbia Crest line-up, including some remarkable values. Tel. (509) 875-2061

The 2008 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon contains 14% Merlot in its blend and was subject to the identical elevage as the 2007. Pain grille, mineral, spice box, incense, violets and assorted black fruits lead to a wine with a similar issue as its older sibling, a moderate austerity on the palate. It, too, has some aging potential so the wine could fill out with additional bottle age, but that is a bit of a gamble. Columbia Crest, part of the Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, is Washington's largest winery. It produces mammoth amounts of wine (2,000,000+ cases) at a remarkably high level of quality. A visit to the cellars reveals brilliant organization, high morale, and a sense of personal involvement by the staff that undoubtedly adds value to the finished wine.www.columbia-crest.com