Col Solare Releases First Red Mountain Vintage

02 Dec 2014 --- Col Solare, the landmark winery on Red Mountain in Washington state, has released the first-ever Red Mountain-designated vintage of its flagship wine – the 2011 Col Solare Red Blend. This limited-production bottling of just 2,500 cases is now available at the Col Solare estate winery, at the Col Solare Bottega in Woodinville, Wash., at select restaurants and retailers, and from the winery's website.

An equal partnership between Washington state's founding winery, Chateau Ste. Michelle, and the first family of Italian wine, Marchesi Antinori, Col Solare was launched in 1995 to produce the premier Cabernet Sauvignon-based wine from Washington state.

The partnership purchased land on Red Mountain – a small appellation in south central Washington state renowned for Cabernet Sauvignon – and established their own estate vineyard and winery there in 2006. Since then, Col Solare has been steadily evolving to its current Red Mountain designation.

   - With the 2009 vintage, fruit from the young estate vineyard, then in just its third leaf, began to play an important role in the blend for Col Solare, comprising 13% of the blend. Overall, Red Mountain contributed 42% of the final blend for the 2009 vintage.
    - With the 2010 vintage, the contribution of the estate vineyard jumps to 48% of the blend, with Red Mountain comprising 69% of the blend for this vintage.
    - For the newly-released 2011 vintage, the estate vineyard makes up 87% of the blend, while Red Mountain contributes 89% of the final blend.
    - Each subsequent vintage of Col Solare will also carry the Red Mountain designation, which requires that at least 85% of each wine be sourced from Red Mountain.