The 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Old Vines is 100% varietal with the fruit sourced from the Champoux (74%) and Sagemoor (26%) vineyards. It was aged in 100% new French oak. Deep purple-colored, it gives up a brooding bouquet of pain grille, pencil lead, truffle, Asian spices, incense, violets, black currant, and blackberry. On the palate it is full-bodied, incipiently complex, silky textured, and impeccably balanced. Give it an additional 5-7 years of bottle age and drink it from 2016 to 2032. Woodward Canyon, one of the pioneer producers of Walla Walla (there were 4 wineries here when I visited in 1990; now there are over 125), remains under the direction of Rick Smalls and continues to be a benchmark against which all others aspiring to the top must be compared. Tel. (509) 525-4129; www.woodwardcanyon.com

Pure Cabernet from some of Washington’s oldest vines at Champoux and Sagemoor, this is a superb bottle, dense, compact and textural. A full mix of black fruits underscored with clean, moist earth and polished, silky tannins, finishes with pretty barrel flavors of spice and vanilla. Broad, deep and immensely pleasurable.——P.G.(12/31/2010)—— 95