2013 Substance Merlot Super Substance Northridge Vineyard- USA, Washington, Columbia Valley, Wahluke Slope (1/10/2019)
Day 1: Bing cherries, smoke, spices, vanilla and oak. This is a big wine and medium to long finish. A bit of heat. Good overall wine and should benefit over the next couple days. 88 points
Day 2: Not improving much and actually declining. I am concerned for this wine. A lot of spice, subtle fruit, some heat and overall quite boring. Not a good day 2 score. 83 points
Day 3: Not any better than day 2.
Recommendation: Pass on this wine. It was a buttery wine on the pop and pour with some heat. So many better wines from Charles Smith out there like their Syrah lineup. (88 pts.)
Kris I have sampled plenty of their BDX wines and compared to the Syrahs for me there is no comparison. It is not just the 2013 vintage for me. I did pick up some Rock Garden 2014 for $30 today. Great wine and great price.
I haven’t yet had a Substance wine that I’d likely buy again, but I’ve only had a handfull. They’re never terrible, just ordinary and quite nondescript. The K lineup is killer, nearly from top to bottom. I’ve not had any B. Leighton. Have had a couple of Sixto Chards, and no CasaSmith. So many labels and wines…but I tend to agree with John.
Honestly, your preference is your preference, funnily thesegot a lot more love when they said K on label before he moved all the BDX varietals to Substance, exact same wines, different label. I just think 2013 was a brutal year in WA for balance.
I agree Charles and Brennan are magical with Syrah, and we try all of them since we sell all their book, but I have always liked Klein, Powerline andJack’s, and the cooler vintages for Merlot.
Kris, I might be confused. Aren’t the Substance wines the line that are sold in large quantities for around the $10-$15 price point? I don’t recall the K line ever having anything in that price range, even Bordeaux varieties.
Substance Cab is the $13 Cs Cabernet. All of the other Substance are the Vinyeard Collection that became Substance when Charles decided K would be. rhone focused, so all the former K BDX varieties became Substance.
Kris here is a very good 2013 wine for under $30 in Minneapolis.
2013 Abeja Cabernet Sauvignon Columbia Valley - USA, Washington, Columbia Valley (1/18/2019)
Day 1: Nice overall. Menthol, vanilla, oak, cherry, blueberries and burnt toast. Medium plus finish. Outstanding 2013 effort. This on a pop and pour. Nice spice quality on the finish. Excellent value under $30. 92 points (92 points)
I will digress a bit, but in WA Cab has trouble ripening, there are quite a few good inexpensive Cabs in 2013 to include larger producers like CSM, especially Cold Creek Cab, so a hot year helps Cab greatly.
For us the bigger, riper, more tannic variety is Merlot and in hot years you can risk it getting plummy, much like ripe Pomerol wines.
We don’t ever really have a bad year now that we are past the freeze year and have buried the vines we are fairly consistent but heat has to be managed when its 110 degrees in Eastern Washington in summer and we don’t get as cool of nights.
I am going to try the 2013 Substance Cabernet Sauvignon Super Substance Stoneridge Vineyard which is only $22.50 on sale. They have the 14 also. Have you tried these 2?
It has been a while, but I prefer the 2014 as I just like the vintage character in 2014 from Wahluke Slope and the bit more structure. Would be interesting comparison…$22.50 is below my cost before support.
I’ll make a point to get by their Jet City winery and see what I can dig up from 13 and 14.
I really liked the Abeja’s when John Abbott was winemaker.I have tried John’s new project Devona and the Merlot and cab are really good.I will be trying the new releases in April and will report back.Abeja’s cab reserve wines IMHO were some of the best cabs I have ever had from Wa.
Abeja has been one of the reference point Cab Sauv’s for Washington State. Always well-balanced (and certainly on the restrained side for WA), and definitely improve with age. A consistent buy for me each year. And, by the way, $30 is a really great price (ain’t gonna find much of it out here at that price)!
Given the weather conditions in WA for 2013, it was really a year that you had to think carefully about producers. Those who like to push the ripeness envelope certainly had the opportunity to do so. And, in my experience, Charles Smith’s labels tend to be one of those. I’m sure some on the WA “home team” here will chime in that is no longer the case, but I’ve seen no evidence of that. That being said, in general, I’ve found that producers that tend to focus on a bit more restrained styles did just fine with their Bdx varieties in 2013. As noted above, Abeja is certainly one of them. Same for Betz. However, for me, the WA Bdx star in 2013 was Cadence. In my opinion, the entire set of the Cadence wines in 2013 are excellent. If I didn’t know that 2013 was a hot year, I’d never have guessed it in any of their wines.
And, as an aside, thought not a Bdx wine, the Ross Andrew Boushey Syrah was a hit for me in 2013, also.
I guess it clarifies it. I just didn’t like the way you were saying that I (and the OP) were somehow changing our minds simply because they’re now under a new label. I just don’t think they’re great wines. I also don’t agree that the low-cost Bordeaux varieties are the same wines now being offered for under $15.
I never said you changed your minds, if it came across that way, sorry.
They aren’t under $15, they are $35-50 just like before. Substance CS Cabernet is the new entry at under $15 and the only wine priced there. The rest were called Super Substance after the K transition and now are Substance Vineyard Collection.