Echolands Winery

Washington

2018

Seven Hills Vineyard Red

Walla Walla Valley

$52 USD

Release Price

Drink Window

14.2%

ABV

3.74

pH

TA

RS

Nose

Our style is a bit more restrained than other Seven Hills Vineyards wine in general. Though Cabenet Franc is only a small portion of the overall blend, the floral character of the grape is evident.

Palate

More prominent are the expressions of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot - plum, black cherry, blueberry, tea and cedar.

Aging

Our blend is built upon individually fermented and aged lots from the Seven Hills Vineyard. We used about one-third new oak, and only French oak, from a short list of coopers for whom we find an affinity for our style. The wine spent about 18 months in barrel.

Taylor Oswald
Taylor is a Whitman College cum laude grad (anthropology with minors in biology and chemistry) and has a Masters in Wine Microbiology from Washington State University. After finishing his degrees, he worked for years at Seattle’s famed Esquin Wine Merchants where he was able to taste some of the world’s most sought after wines. He was most recently at Mark Ryan Winery where he managed the wine lab and helped the guide the team through all aspects of winemaking, and he values time that he has spent working harvests at Gramercy Cellars, Rotie Cellars and Waters Winery. His publications include papers in the Journal of Applied Microbiology and the American Journal of Enology on the character and control of Brettanomyces. A native of Alaska, Taylor lives in Walla Walla with his wife Michaela and their twin girls.
View More

More from this Producer

Echolands WinerySeven Hills Vineyard Red

Echolands WineryGrenache Riviere-Galets Vineyard

While the "stones" portion of Walla Walla (a certain winery won't let us use the more common word) is highly prized by some, we're not so enamored of the high pH's and the fat and gooey mouthfeel. But having said that, this rocky region has an alluring quality if you can keep the gras in check. So we harvest our Grenache early and then aged the wine in stainless steel drums, in an effort to highlight the fruit brightness and downplay its tendency to over-ripeness. We finish a third of the wine in neutral French oak. While this might be ideal with a chill on it for a hot day, the wine has a more compelling side and even more surprising depth to it.

Echolands WineryPoet-Nat Sparkling Cabernet Franc

Our pet-nat is 100% Cabernet Franc from the Seven Hills Vineyard and was harvested early in order to retain its acidity. The primary fermentation took place in stainless steel and the secondary fermentation occurred in the bottle - no sulfur was added at any point in the process. The wine remained on the lees until mid-February 2020 when we disgorged it and let it rest for a further six months.