2016 DeLille Cellars Four Flags Cabernet Sauvignon Washington

The Secret is Out: Washington is Where It’s At

Finding unforgettable bottles at reasonable prices is the goal of wine lovers everywhere. For our team here at Wine Access, it’s our passion, our mission, and our job. Today, we’re ready to prove Washington Cabernet can and does go head-to-head with Napa Valley Cabs, for a fraction of the cost.

The 2016 Four Flags Cabernet is simply incredible, with beguiling aromas of black cherries and currants, chocolate, and mocha paving the way for lush, broad flavors of vanilla-spiced plums and chocolate-covered cherries.

We all refused to spit it out. With wine this good, wasting any of it was unthinkable: It drank like a $100 Cab despite the fact that it’s around 40% less than that, and has clearly earned its score, on par with giants like CADE and Carte Blanche.

Coming in at around half the price of comparably high-scoring wines from the miraculous 2016 vintage, this transporting Cab has become one of the most sought-after reds from the state in recent years. Jeb Dunnuck, in his ringing 97-point review, called it “One of the gems in the lineup…This thrilling, sensational Cabernet Sauvignon has a beautiful perfume of red currants, spice box, new leather, and dried flowers…[and] offers balance, remarkable purity, and a finish that won’t quit.”

This is not one you’ll want to pass up.

Robert Parker himself has called DeLille “the Lafite-Rothschild of Washington State.” And in a year like 2016, which Wine Advocate said is “a very fine vintage indeed, with beautifully delineated fruit tones, suave tannins and succulent balancing acids,” it was inevitable that a wine as stunning as the Four Flags Cab would be a ringing success.

It’s sourced from four of the most important vineyards in Red Mountain AVA—Upchurch, Grand Ciel, Ciel du Cheval, and Klipsun—and the sum of the parts is far greater and more overtly delicious than any of them on their own. And finely calibrated winemaking is used to amplify all of that natural deliciousness: Following a 24-36-hour cold soak, the juice was fermented for at least two weeks, after which it reposed in French oak for 20 months, giving the wine a deep ruby hue and inimitable spicy notes. The result is a wine that is easily one of the best of a vintage with no shortage of legends-in-the-making.

This is that rarest of wines: One that has earned the swooning praise of some of the most important critics in the world, tastes like it costs twice what it actually does, and embodies everything that makes the Washington region such an exciting one.

• Fruit Intensity
• Oak Intensity
• Body
• Acidity
• Tannin

• ABV 14.10%
• 30 mins
• Now – 2030
• % Cabernet Sauvignon
• Serving temperature – 60°
• Cork