Puget Purveyors is a collaboration between Morgan Lee, winemaker for Two Vintners and Covington Cellars, and Paul Zitarelli, the wine writer for Seattle Magazine. Their shared goal is to produce as compelling a $25 Cabernet Sauvignon as possible from Washington State.

Discovery Vineyard forms the backbone of Puget Purveyors Cabernet Sauvignon. Planted in 2005 on soils of thin windblown loess above a base of fractured basalt, and farmed by Milo and Kay May, Discovery sits on a south-facing bluff overlooking the Columbia River and Crow Butte. The proximity to the river helps moderate daytime temperatures, and the steep slope helps to fend off frost. Wind also whips up off the Columbia, gently dehydrating grapes and leading to little buckshot Cabernet berries with very high skin-to-juice ratio. This results in incredible tannic structure in Discovery Cabernets.

The 2015 vintage was aged for 15 months in a mix of new (25%) and used French oak puncheons and barriques. Finished alcohol is 14.5%. It begins with a nose combining deep dark fruit (black plum, crème de cassis) with subtleties of the kind of graphitic minerality that only the best Horse Heaven Hills vineyards provide. On the palate, it’s the texture you notice first: the sturdy scaffolding of black-tea tannin from Discovery paired to fleshy, delicious Cabernet fruit. This is a balanced four-corners Cab, hitting fruit, earth, savory, and barrel notes in turn. The finish is all Earl Grey tannin goodness, kissed with bergamot.

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