Make no mistake about the Quilceda Creek Cabernet Sauvignons - they are world-class Cabernets that compete with the finest wines from Bordeaux, Napa Valley, Sonoma, and Santa Cruz Mountains. Unfortunately, there are only 1,000 cases of their regular bottling and 200 or so of their Reserve, which was inaugurated with the 1988 vintage. The wines spend two and one-half years in small oak casks, of which thirty-three to fifty percent are new. Most of the fruit comes from the Red Mountain Vineyard. The regular bottlings in both 1989 and 1990 are deep, rich, full-bodied wines with saturated colors and copious amounts of sweet cassis fruit intelligently married with toasty new oak. They are ripe, concentrated, graceful, and harmonious. The acid, tannin, and alcohol are well-integrated in both offerings. The 1990 is slightly more open, whereas, the 1989 appears more backward and in need of at least 4-5 years of cellaring. Both wines should last for 15 or more years.