Delille Cellars 2007 D2

The Winery:  Delille Cellars
The Wine:  2007 D2
The Price:  This wine was given to me by my friend, Elena (thanks, Elena!).  Delille sells this wine on their website for $35.

Delille is a local winery for me.  They're located in Woodinville, Washington.  They are an independent winery that has been making wine since 1992.

The D2 wine from Delille has an interesting story.  The wine is made from the same grapes that were selected for their premium Chaleur Estate wine, but is comprised of juices that did not quite have the qualities that they were looking for in their Chaleur Estate label.  This is a common practice in Bordeaux, although in Bordeaux, the second label typically utilizes the fruit from the vineyard's younger vines.  As an aside, by looking for the second label for a Château from Bordeaux, you can often find a very good wine at a great savings over the Château label.  

The D2 is a blend of 51% Merlot, 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7.5% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petite Verdot.  The wine was corked with a natural cork and decanted an hour before tasting.  It is very dark purple in color.

The D2 has aromas of black cherry, plum, blackberry and vanilla.  It has flavors of cherry, berry, chocolate and spice.  The spicy flavor is fairly prominent, so if you don't like a lot of spice in your wine, then this isn't one for you.  Personally, I like this wine very much.  The spicy flavor is a nice balance to the fruit flavors.  While it's very good now, this is a wine that would likely benefit from a few years of additional aging.