Hedges Family Estate La Haute Cuvee Cabernet Sauvignon 2017
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James
Suckling -
Jeb
Dunnuck -
Robert
Parker
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
The wine smells of cherry and new leather, with scents of menthol and fennel spice. The palate is young, tense, and definitive. Tannins are abundant, but silky. The finish is pronounced, secure, prophetic and meaty, yet, not over extracted. Good things come to those who will wait. Recommend 12 hours of decanting when drunk young.
Blend: 95% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Perfumed aromas of pine cone, incense, sandalwood, rosemary and dark fruit. It’s full-bodied with firm, fine-grained tannins. Intense and layered. Good structure, focus and energy. Drink from 2022.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The flagship is the 2017 La Haute Cuvée, and it's 95% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Petit Verdot that spent 21 months in 32% new barrels. It has more lifted aromatics of blueberries, candied violets, black cherries, graphite, green tobacco, and cedarwood. This carries to a medium to full-bodied Cabernet that has ripe, polished tannins, good acidity, and a character-filled, complex style that’s going to evolve for over a decade.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 La Haute Cuvée marks the sixth vintage of Hedges Family Estate's first biodynamic wine and consists mostly of Cabernet Sauvignon with 5.26% Merlot. It boasts a dark, juicy fruited frame with a dusty core and elements of savory dried herbs that sway with a soft, oaky essence from the glass. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is focused and pure with a notion of worn leather and dusty lavender, with fine-grained tannins across the mid-palate. The wine ends with a delightful frame of dusty fruit on the finish, with a soft oaky edge that will continue to please for a decade.
Other Vintages
2018-
James
Suckling -
Jeb
Dunnuck
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Wine
Enthusiast
It was 1986 when Washington native Tom Hedges found his first employment in the wine industry marketing American wines in Taiwan. From that humble beginning, Hedges Cellars, then a "virtual" winery, found its first customer: the government of Sweden. Tom and his wife Anne-Marie marketed their Cabernet/Merlot blend to foreign buyers exclusively for two years before going domestic and opening up North American distribution. Still without their own winery, they took a chance buying acreage on an obscure little hill called Red Mountain.
The Hedges have concentrated their efforts on Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, and the concept of terroir since their first vintage in 1987. With Anne-Marie Hedges' roots and childhood in the Champagne region of France, it was only natural that a French-style chateau would be built on the slopes of Red Mountain amongst their vines.
Their daughter, Sarah Goedhart, is the head winemaker and their son Christophe Hedges is the General Manager. Hedges Cellars transitioned to Hedges Family Estate, and farming practices became more focused towards being organic, vegan. The first two vineyards were certified Biodynamic by Demeter in 2011 and all five vineyards were certified in 2021. Robert Parker awarded Hedges the Green Emblem in 2022 in recognition of their long-term commitment to sustainability. Their future direction is clear: they will continue to work as a family to unite farming, winemaking, and the promotion of their wines and the Red Mountain AVA.