Spice Cabinet Vineyard Reserve Malbec
⏳ Drinking Window
Typically best enjoyed 5–10 years from vintage release.
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Grilled ribeye steak, roasted lamb chops, strong blue cheese
✨ Technical Specifications
The Spice Cabinet Vineyard, nestled in the Horse Heaven Hills AVA of Washington State, is a prized estate parcel for Columbia Crest. Sloping gently toward the Columbia River, this unique vineyard benefits from a warm microclimate, cooling river breezes, and quick-draining soils that stress the vines, resulting in small, concentrated berries. The vineyard earned its evocative name from the distinctive, exotic spice notes—such as clove, anise, and cracked black pepper—that the terroir naturally imparts to the grapes. This Reserve Malbec showcases the grape's expressive Washington profile, combining intense dark fruit flavors with the signature herbal complexity of the site. It is typically fermented in small lots and aged in select oak barrels to refine its velvety tannins and rich, robust structure.
🍾 About the Producer
Established in 1982 by Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, Columbia Crest was the pioneer winery founded within what is now the acclaimed Horse Heaven Hills AVA of eastern Washington. Situated along the benchlands above the Columbia River, the estate takes full advantage of a semi-arid, rain-shadowed microclimate marked by intense summer sunshine, constant river breezes that deter frost and pests, and fast-draining, wind-blown Warden silt loam soils. Initial plantings in 1978 and early winemaking under founding cellar master Doug Gore established the winery's benchmark status for reliable varietal purity and commercial scale. The production regimen bridges large-scale precision with small-lot barrel fermentation and French and American oak aging. Columbia Crest cemented its reputation when its 2005 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon won Wine Spectator's Wine of the Year. Today, the estate produces tiered selections ranging from the everyday Two Vines and Grand Estates labels to vineyard-driven Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay expressions.
🍇 Grapes
Malbec
🍷 ABV
14.0-15.0%