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The 2023 growing season in Washington began with a warm and welcoming spring, setting the stage for an exceptional vintage. Growing Degree Days mirrored those of the outstanding 2021 season, signaling a return to beautifully balanced conditions. As summer unfolded, the vineyards thrived under ideal weather; warm, sun-drenched days and cool, refreshing evenings creating the perfect environment for steady vine development and optimal ripening. Mother Nature continued her generosity into fall, offering a stretch of pristine weather that allowed the fruit to remain on the vine until it reached peak maturity and ideal brix levels, ensuring remarkable flavor, concentration, and balance.
Each new year gives me the opportunity to step back and look at what our vineyards delivered and how those choices carried through to the wines in bottle. This Spring Release marks the first offering of 2026 and brings together three wines that reflect vineyard history, farming decisions, and the character of their growing seasons.
The foundation of this release is our 2023 Founding Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon. These vines, planted in 1980, continue to deliver fruit with depth, structure, and unmistakable presence. Farmed on Vertical Shoot Positioning (VSP), this vineyard produces Cabernet with classic proportions and natural balance. The 2023 vintage was warm but measured, allowing for full ripeness while retaining tannin and structure. This is a Cabernet built to age, yet it already shows clarity and confidence.
The 2023 McClellan Cabernet Sauvignon offers a compelling contrast. Although sourced from vineyards within proximity, this block is trained on Geneva Double Curtain trellising, which alters canopy exposure and ripening patterns. The result is a Cabernet with a distinct texture and aromatic profile, underscoring how farming choices directly influence style.
Completing the release is our 2024 Malbec, a wine I always encourage our fans to enjoy in its youth. Despite an extremely cold winter, thoughtful pruning and a cooperative growing season delivered a healthy crop and vibrant fruit. Aged in Hungarian puncheon oak, this Malbec is generous, approachable, and ready now. Together, these wines set the tone for the year ahead, and I am excited to finally share them with you. I look forward to welcoming you into the tasting room to experience these releases in person, where their stories are best told in the glass.
Bobby Richards
2023 Founding Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon
$65 Retail
Walla Walla Valley
The Seven Hills Winery Founding Vineyard represents a cornerstone of Walla Walla Valley winegrowing. As the first significant planting of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon in the region, this historic estate helped shape both the identity of Seven Hills Winery and the future of viticulture in the valley. These original vines have produced highly regarded wines for more than three decades and continue to do so today.
First produced in 1988 from eightyearold vines, Seven Hills Founding Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon is the wine that started it all. Today marks our 35th vintage from vines now over 40 years old, making our estate the oldest continuously producing vineyard in the Walla Walla AVA. This flagship Cabernet showcases the elegance, strength, and ageworthy structure that define the region’s finest wines.
The wine is 100 percent Cabernet Sauvignon sourced from the original 4.5acre G7 block, planted in 1980 by the McClellan family. Fruit is destemmed and lightly crushed into opentop fermenters, then aged 22 months in 50 percent new French oak barrels.
This old vine Cabernet has a dark garnet color with aromatics of blackberry reduction, black raspberries, leather and hints of freshly cut vanilla bean and wet earth. The palate presents a medium-plus-bodied wine framed by firm tannins that last from start to finish. Flavors of Marionberries, black cherry pie and leather combine with hints of dried tobacco leaves, green peppercorns and bramble. Enjoy now after an hour of decanting or wait 4-10 years before enjoying this wine with a Grilled Tomahawk, Braised Short ribs, aged gouda, or Portobello Steak au Poivre.
2023 McClellan Estate Cabernet Sauvignon
$65 Retail
Walla Walla Valley
McClellan Estate Vineyard sits along the southern edge of the Walla Walla Valley, directly adjacent to the historic founding blocks of Seven Hills Winery. Established by the McClellan family in 2003, this vineyard was thoughtfully designed from the ground up, with varietal selection, clones, trellising systems, and farming practices chosen specifically for this site. After more than thirty years of working the land in this region and nearly two decades farming this vineyard, its distinct character is clearly expressed in this vineyard‑designate Cabernet Sauvignon.
This wine is 100 percent Cabernet Sauvignon sourced entirely from McClellan Estate Vineyard. Fruit is open‑top fermented to build structure and depth, then aged for 22 months in 50 percent new French oak barrels. The wine is lightly filtered and bottled vegan.
The McClellan Cabernet offers a refined counterpoint to our Founding Vineyard bottling, shaped by its unique farming approach and vineyard design. It emphasizes purity of fruit, balance, and texture, with structure that supports both early enjoyment and thoughtful aging. This wine reflects a modern chapter in the McClellan family’s viticultural story, rooted in experience and guided by intention, and stands as a clear expression of what careful vineyard planning and long‑term stewardship can achieve.
This wine boasts a deep garnet hue, drawing you in with bold aromas of boysenberry, fig, and cigar box, layered with hints of blackstrap molasses and freshly roasted espresso beans. Its lush texture unfolds into a full-bodied experience, supported by firm tannins and rich flavors of Black Forest cake, red currants, and plum compote. Subtle notes of white peppercorn and mulling spice add depth, all balanced by a medium acidity.
Affectionately dubbed “Goth Cab” by our Tasting Room Manager, Yvonne, this wine is perfect for fireside sipping on chilly nights. Enjoy within 3–7 years of the vintage, though it will continue to evolve beautifully for a decade or more. For a perfect pairing, try it with smoked brisket, crispy duck breast with black cherry sauce, or zucchini boats stuffed with lentil-walnut tomato sauce.
2024 Malbec McClellan Estate
$50 Retail
Walla Walla Valley
Seven Hills Winery has worked with Bordeaux varietals for more than 30 years, bottling all six red varieties to highlight each grape’s individual character. We have produced Malbec for over fifteen years and were the first winery to do so in the Walla Walla Valley. We believe the valley’s southern edge is one of the rare regions where Malbec reaches its full potential, with ample heat for ripening balanced by cool nights that preserve aromatics and structure.
The 2024 Malbec is 100 percent Malbec from fan‑trained vines at McClellan Estate Vineyard, open‑top fermented and aged 16 months in 35 percent new 500L Hungarian oak puncheons. Despite a severe January freeze, a favorable growing season delivered wines with depth, complexity, and balanced acidity.
The deep fuchsia color catches your eye as it enters the glass. Aromas of blackberry and plum explode from the glass with underlying notes of cardamom, grains of paradise and fresh lavender. While the aromas lead your thoughts down a path of spiced berry cobbler, your palate is engulfed by juicy texture and velvety flavors of red and black plums and marionberry, unlaying flavors of sweet tobacco and sweet tarts, all wrapped around medium tannins and medium acidity. Pair with lamb burger with feta, three bean chili, chimichurri grilled flank steak. Even Swedish meatballs in a loganberry sauce.
Join Seven Hills Winery for our Spring Release Open House, celebrating the arrival of spring in Walla Walla with expressive new wines and tasting room gatherings.
Seven Hills Winery warmly invites you to a Spring Pig Roast Party, where flavors dance, music fills the breeze, and memories are made under the golden glow of summer.
Join us for an exclusive experience with winemaker Bobby Richards to explore everything Seven Hills Winery has to offer.
Join us for a high-energy, communal celebration centered around our flagship Pentad blend.
Join us at the winery for one of the most anticipated weekends of the year.
We have a full calendar of events planned for 2026. Check the details below.
May 1-3: Spring Release Weekend
May 2: Roast and Toast
November 6-8: Fall Release Weekend
November 1: Pentad Dinner – Details coming soon!
December 31 – Noon Year’s Eve
For more information or to reorder these wines:
Please contact us at INFO@SEVENHILLSWINERY.COM or 509-593-6226