Rasa Occam's Razor Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2022
Rasa Vineyards is the realization of our passion, vision and commitment to create a world-class winery focused on producing ultra-premium, terroir specific wines from Eastern Washington and Northeastern Oregon.
We fell in love with wine in 1991. Since then, we’ve tasted hundreds of wines every year and developed a deep appreciation for everything about wine. For years we dreamed of starting our own winery.
In 2006, Billo applied to the UC Davis Masters program for Viticulture and Winemaking. He was one of ten to get accepted that year. He called me and asked what he should do. It was the same year I was turning 40. If we didn’t do this now, we never would and we would regret it for the rest of our lives. So, he quit Hewlett Packard and went to school full-time. I spent the next year formulating a business plan, doing financial projections, and creating operational links to ensure we had a path to success.
In 2007, while Billo was still in school, we felt we were ready. That year, we created two wines: 2007 QED (a blend of Syrah, Grenache, and Mourvedre) and 2007 Principia Reserve Syrah. The QED received 94 points from Wine Spectator and the Principia received a perfect rating from Rand Sealey of Review of Washington Wines – not a bad way to start.
Ten years later, we continue to be proud of what we do. We remain committed to making the best wines in the world. In 2006, we made the decision to start our winery, we subsequently left our high-tech jobs behind, and we’ve never looked back.
The 2019 Occam’s Razor Cabernet Sauvignon is our first release of this wine. This wine offers an exceptional quality to price ratio. This wine has a fantastic bouquet of blackberry, cassis, black cherry, with nuances of spice, lvanilla, and espresso. The full-bodied palate has suave tannins with well delineated notes of blackberry, cassis, black cherry, vanilla, cigar tobacco, dark chocolate, and cedar. The wine shows a deft balance between the fruit extract, refreshing acidity, and moderately grippy tannins. The wine finishes with lovely notes of cassis, black cherry, and earth. This is a compelling beverage at a modest price point. Drinks well now but will improve over the next 5-8 years.
Fermentation: The wine had a pre-fermentation maceration average of 122 hours and a post-fermentation maceration average of 76 hours. Native fermentation was used on 80% of the lots. The wine was punched down by hand 3 times each day during macerations and fermentation. All individual wine components, including free run and press fractions, were kept separate until final blending.
Cooperage: The oak profile is 20% new French oak (predominantly from Troncais and Alliers) and 80% neutral French oak.
