A dark glass bottle with a gold cap and a white label covered in handwritten style black and gold text.

2023 PLUS ONE

WINEMAKER’S NOTES

2023 will go down as one of the best Cabernet Sauvignon vintages for Washington state—small berries, thick skins, deep color, high flavor intensity. The 2023 Plus One is deep ruby-purple color with impeccable balance, exceptional complexity, and a fine, ultra-long finish. Beautifully delineated notes of cassis, black cherry, aged cigar tobacco, graphite, tar, espresso, allspice, and dried herbs on the bouquet. The palate offers a significant, hedonistic core of fruit with notes of cassis, blackberry, black cherry, espresso, gravel, vanilla, anise, incense, and forest floor. The very long and vibrant finish has notes of cassis, thyme, leather, and cigar tobacco. Substantial tannins with a slight firmness that will require some patience. As usual this is a classically styled Cabernet Sauvignon. It should reach a lovely phase of maturity in 10-12 years and gracefully evolve for 20+ years.

TECHNICAL DETAILS

The wine had a pre-fermentation maceration of 155 hours. 100% Native fermentation. The wine was punched down by hand 3 times each day during maceration and fermentation. All individual wine components, including free run and press fractions, were kept separate until final blending. The oak profile is 50% new French oak (predominantly from Troncais and Alliers) and 50% neutral French oak. The wine achieved its sparkly brilliance from 3 judicious rackings, no fining agents were employed. The wine was very lightly filtered to capture any remaining lees. The alcohol is 15.1%, pH is 3.77, and the titratable acidity is 6.4g/L. produced.

CASES PRODUCED   173

VARIETALS   100% Cabernet Sauvignon

APPELLATION   Columbia Valley

LABEL STORY

Close-up of a textured paper with handwritten numbers in black and gold ink, repeating the pattern of large numbers with plus signs in between, on a gray background.

In 2012 we released our first 100% Cabernet Sauvignon – from the 2009 vintage. Starting with the 2023 vintage, the fruit will come from Red Mountain and nearby vineyards in different appellations.

I love what we do with this wine. It’s a pure expression of Cabernet.

When Billo and I fell in love with wine it was Cabernet, notably of Napa and Left Bank Bordeaux. It is intertwined with our wine journey. When coming up with a name for this wine, I wanted to evoke this sentiment.

When thinking about this, I started to think about my daughter, who was 10 years old at the time. Whenever I’d say “I love you” to her, she always replied “Plus One.” It comes from a game we used to play when she was younger:

Pinto: I love you

Karly: I love you plus 1000

Pinto: I love you 1000 plus one

Karly: I love you plus 10,000

Pinto: I love you 10,000 plus one

Karly: I love you plus infinity

Pinto: I love you infinity plus one

I thought about this. I thought about our wine journey. I thought about Cabernet Sauvignon. And I thought Plus One is a perfect name for this wine.

If you haven’t tried Plus One, you should. You’ll fall in love – plus one.