'07 "H3" Horse Heaven Hills Cabernet Sauvignon

H3 is back. It's been unavailable for an entire year, at least in Maryland. So what happened? Well, the huge mega-corporation Costco wanted to buy out the entire last vintage direct from the winery to use as a loss-leader and since H3 is owned by the big but not-so-mega -corporation Columbia Crest (wisely, the name "Columbia Crest" is quite un-intrusive on the bottle, of course for some reason so is "Horse Heaven Hills") which is run by short sighted accountants, they went for it. What that means is, if you live in a state where retailers like Costco can't sell alcohol, well...No wine for you! Which is a shame, because this is a really nice wine. I mean really nice, it's just a great California Cabernet. Which is odd, since it's from Washington State.

But that only makes it better. Because, instead of having to pay anywhere from 30 to 100 bucks (seriously) for an accessible fruit forward Cali Cab with rich fruit and gentle tannins, you get a Washington State version for $13.99. It should be available pretty much everywhere in the U.S. so run out and grab it.

H3 Merlot 2007***++

It's the fault of that damned movie. You know the one I'm talking about. The one about wine, with those famous actors whose names you can almost remember. You know the movie I'm talking about, the one you didn't see? That movie that almost no one saw. But the commercials were ubiquitous. Remember? "No, NO, if anyone orders Merlot I am leaving!". Doesn't that ring a bell? That commercial, killed, killed, the demand for Merlot. Everyone assumed that drinking Merlot meant that you were an unsophisticated wine drinker. OK, granted there had been a lot of, shall we say, soft and fruit forward Merlots in the marketplace that did appeal to people who haven't been drinking wine long. But still, it's so unfair. Because Merlot can make wonderful, supple and and not-fruit-forward-at-all wine. Case in point. H3 Merlot has subtle tannins with a soft earthiness and flower flavors it's deep and rich and if you didn't know better you might guess you were drinking a Cabernet. The "Wine Spectator" gave it a deserved 91 points.

H3 Cabernet Sauvignon 2007***++

I've mentioned H3 before, about how the last vintage wasn't available. But I didn't review it. Now the reason I didn't review it was because I hadn't...you know...tasted it. This is actually a bit embarrassing, we try not to bring wine into the store we haven't tasted. But since we had tasted the vintage before last and it was so good, and it had been so long since you could get it in Maryland, and the reviews had been so good, and the price was so good, and it was so unlikely that we weren't going to like it, well...we jumped on it. And I'm glad we did. Because it's great. For a wine that has Columbia Crest on the label it's an idiosyncratic California Cab, it cannot in any way be described as a "fruit bomb". Oh there's plenty of fruit going on, but the action is in the other flavors and the structure. There's a lot of minerality and well integrated tannins and floral notes with perhaps a hint of leather with a long chocolaty finish. "Wine and Spirits" gave it 91 points and made it one of the "Top 100 Buys of the Year".