2004 Apex Cellars "Apex II" Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

[newsguy]

This is the “second” wine of Apex Cellars in Washington state. Medium reddish purple, but surprisingly already orangish at the rim. Light nose straight out of the bottle, but very good flavors of cherry, chocolate and a touch of blueberry. Started opening up very nicely after only 15 minutes in the decanter, and the chocolate component got stronger, along with a touch of coconut. Nice use of oak that didn’t come off overbearing to me, but complementary. Very good fruit, decent acidity and a few fine, chocolatey tannins. Although I’ve heard that descriptor, this is the first time I’ve ever come across “chocolatey tannins.” No doubt these were them. Anyhow, this was a very nice wine that started out slowly (84 points) and improved quickly with decanting. 88 points, and at $14.99 a fine value.

[dananne]

CCK pointed us to them last summer when we were out there visiting her, and we tasted a good portion of their wines, but with over 30 bottles in 3 different product lines, we had to limit ourselves a bit. Thus, we only tasted the different Cabs, the Syrahs, and a few other misc. reds. Anyway, speaking of chocolate, they make a delicious Cabernet Chocolate dessert sauce. Yummy stuff. Thanks for the note!