Force Majeure Red Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon Estate 2019 – 750ml Terroir

98pts Jeb Dunnuck

Another gem is the 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Red Mountain Estate, a deep, concentrated, powerful Red Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon that I suspect will be up there with the legendary wines from this terroir. Beautiful cassis, graphite, lead pencil shavings, and damp earth notes give way to a full-bodied effort that has a liqueur of rocks-like minerality, flawless balance, building yet polished tannins, and a great finish. Hide bottles for 4-5 years, and it will evolve for 25-30 years if properly stored. Best After 2026.

97pts Vinous

Seductive from the first tilt of the glass, the 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Red Mountain Estate wafts up with a rich mix of crushed plums, sweet lavender and hints of blood orange. This is pure elegance on the palate, velvety and opulent, yet harmonious, with brisk acids and salty mineral tones that add a lovely tension. The 2019 finishes incredibly long and structured with echoes of red plum and mocha. This is a beast in need of taming. Make sure to lose your bottles in the cellar for a number of years.

94pts Wine Spectator

A gutsy red that retains a sense of style and polish, with expressive blackberry, espresso and toasty spice flavors that build structure toward broad-shouldered tannins. Drink now.

Winemaker Notes

Force Majeure’s estate Cabernet Sauvignon is a powerful but elegant, full-bodied wine that is grown primarily along the southwest ridge of the winery’s vineyard, in soils that are deep and loamy but contain many small rocks of fractured basalt, concreted ash and even some granite from Missoula flood erratics. The vines produce small berries with bountiful flavor, concentration and intensity, but also a good degree of finesse, excellent structure and layers of complexity that will continue to develop during extended bottle aging for those who want to cellar and age their wines.