Dense purple aspect, with a bouquet of ripe dark fruit and notes of spice. Full and lush on the palate, with black cherry, raspberry, cocoa and coffee, leading to a long, spicy finish. Serve with pasta, red meats and cheeses.

In 1978 Columbia Crest began planting vines in eastern Washington's Horse Heaven Hills along the Columbia river, after recognising the potential of the region to produce quality grapes. Crest's head winemaker Ray Einberger joined in 1993. Previously a member of the Opus One international winemaking team, and with extensive work in Bordeaux including Château Mouton-rothschild, Ray was drawn to Washington by the similarities he perceived between French and Washington vineyards. Under Einberger's leadership, the Columbia Crest winemaking team has produced more 90-plus scoring bottles of wine than any other winery in the world. With the capacity to produce handcrafted, superior-quality small-lot wines, as well as affordable everyday Washington wines, Crest is today one of America's most popular and fastest growing wineries.

Being in the rain shadow of the Cascade Mountains, the Crest vineyards receive long dry summers to ripen grapes and cool nights which preserve acidity. The large estate and riverside location create a variety of microclimates, soils and temperatures, which provide the winemaking team distinctively different parcels of grapes. Because the valley is phylloxera-free, Crest is able to propagate new vines from parent plants with the best wine-producing characteristics, and has developed an active shoot-tip culture program, the only such program at a US winery.