Betz Family Winery Cabernet Sauvignon Pere de Famille 2010 is made from 8% Merlot, 6% Petit Verdot & 86% Cabernet

Robert Parker On Betz Family Winery Cabernet Sauvignon Pere de Famille 2010:

Diversely-sourced, and blended with 8% Merlot and 6% Petit Verdot, the Betz 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon Pere de Famille leads with classic aromatic expressions of its star player: cedar box, juniper berry, arbor vitae, cassis, blackberry, and dark tobacco, all of which reprise on a luscious, savory palate underlain by ultra-fine tannin and possessed of vibratory energy. The sheer abundance of primary juiciness here – like the energetic ping to its enervating, reverberative finish – strikes me as especially typical of the best marriages of cepage and terroir, which happens to be precisely what Betz is wistfully referring to as “something that happens with Cabernet in Washington.” Something indeed! I would go easy on this for a few years and look forward to at least a decade of high performance.

Like so many of Washington’s most influential and successful wine personalities, Bob Betz is a veteran of Ste Michelle, for whom he directed promotion and educational outreach, in the process earning an M.W. Betz and his wife, Cathy, commenced their own operation in 1997, committed to blending across a range of the state’s best vineyards, and they built an attendant facility in 2005. “Since 2005,” he noted as we toured historic Red Willow Vineyard with its owner-manager Mike Sauer, “things are pretty constant – same rows, same blocks” not only from Red Willow but from the other growers with whom Betz works. Betz exudes self-consciousness and meticulousness, and in traveling around viticultural Washington, one quickly realizes that his advice is eagerly sought by and generously accorded colleagues of all ages and levels of experience. In April of last year, the Washington wine world was shocked by the news that the Betzes had sold their winery to South Africans Steve and Bridgit Griessel, whose backgrounds are in marketing. The plan is apparently for things to otherwise go on as before, with Betz calling the shots in winemaking indefinitely. He works very closely with all of his suppliers; fruit is subjected to sophisticated and stringent sorting; and fermentation is by inoculation with a wide range of specialized yeasts – like other aspects of winery protocol guided, Betz is eager to make clear, by an experimental spirit and scientific rigor. “We’re fans of efficient fermentations,” he elucidates, “so 7-10 days on the skins, and we’ll often press before dryness. We like efficient malolactic, too, so lots of stirring and we keep the temperature at 68-70 F. until it’s done.” The wines from Rhone varietals are raised in close to half new barriques for 12 months – except for Chapitre 3, which, like the four months longer-matured wines from Bordelais varieties, sees two-thirds new wood; the balance of barrels are exclusively second year; and wines aren’t racked from barrel until bottling unless deemed to show signs that they are demanding it. The Betz Syrahs are typically released around their second birthdays, while the wines from Bordelais bottlings aren’t released until six months later. -Robert Parker Wine Advocate #204 95 Points

Steven Tanzer On Betz Family Winery Cabernet Sauvignon Pere de Famille 2010:

Bright red-ruby.  High-pitched aromas of blackberry, redcurrant, dried mint and thyme.  Densely packed, tactile and sweet but youthfully bound-up, with brisk acidity giving terrific cut and precision to the wine's dark fruit and spearmint flavors.  Finishes with strong tannic spine and a terrific structure for aging.  As young as this cabernet is, with its inner-mouth perfume it's showier today than the Clos de Betz.  I'd wait at least five years on this one.  Interestingly, Bob Betz told me that the latest pickers got prunes in 2010 waiting for their pHs to go up and acids to come down.  "Still, October saved the vintage," he added.  (The 2009 Pere de Famille, which I rated 93(+?) last year, had gained in fullness and pliancy with another year in bottle, and merited 94 points.  But the 2010 should show an even more eventful evolution in bottle.) Tanzer 94+ Points

Wine Maker Notes On Betz Family Winery Cabernet Sauvignon Pere de Famille 2010:

A wine of unexpected dimension and pleasure, similar in fruit expression to some of the respected hillside Napa versions of Cabernet, where their altitude plays the cooling influence of our overall cooler season. A densely saturated vibrant black/red color leads to a nose of pure black currants, at once inky yet penetrating. Studded with notes of dried thyme, anise and pipe tobacco, the aroma emerges as pure Cabernet. The entry is plump, supple and refined, enriched by blending with small amounts of Petite Verdot and Merlot.

My consistent notes across months of tasting state, “…perfect balance”, where Cabernet’s power is matched by finesse and fruit. The palate is full and round, and not dumbed-down by heavy over ripeness: it maintains its Columbia Valley cut and precision. And there’s no doubt about this wine’s ageability; the balance of fruit and chemistry is right to take this many years in the cellar.