Hedges Family Estate Red Mountain CMS 2021

The Hedges château sits on Red Mountain like somebody dropped a piece of Saint-Émilion in the middle of the sagebrush. Full-on turrets. Long driveway. Biodynamic farming on a property that from the road looks like it belongs in the south of France, not between Benton City and Richland. That is not just branding. Tom Hedges and his family have been doing this since 1987 and the wines show it. CMS is their entry-level Bordeaux blend, Cabernet-Merlot-Syrah, and it is the bottle I recommend to anyone who still thinks Washington means Chateau Ste. Michelle and nothing else. Dark berry, graphite, a little smoke, tannins that are soft enough to open tonight but serious enough to cellar for three or four years. The price is the trick. Twenty dollars. Twenty. I picked up a case at a shop in Kennewick this morning for $19 a bottle and I am already planning to ship a second case home. Put this in a cellar next to a $60 Bordeaux and watch guests get confused in the best way.