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Domaine Magdalena 'Li'l Mag' Nouveau of Cabernet Sauvignon
Domaine Magdalena 'Li'l Mag' Nouveau of Cabernet Sauvignon
Grapes — 100% Cabernet Sauvignon
Region — Red Mountain AVA, Columbia Valley, Washington
Tasting Notes — Bright, translucent ruby with a violet flash. Crunchy red berry, wild strawberry, and pomegranate on the nose, lifted by rose petal, black pepper, and a dusty herbal edge of oregano and dried sage. The palate is juicy, snappy, and almost weightless, with barely-there tannins and a bright acid line that keeps everything darting forward. Low in alcohol and built entirely for pleasure. Serve it properly chilled, around 55°F, and watch the bottle vanish.
The Wine — A nouveau made from early-picked Cabernet Sauvignon, whole-cluster carbonic maceration, native yeast, bottled young and unfined and unfiltered. Made in the spirit of Beaujolais Nouveau, which on Red Mountain is a genuinely subversive act.
Red Mountain is Washington's most concentrated red wine site: a south-facing hill between Benton City and West Richland on gravel, sand, loess, and fine sediment, and a place that grows big, dark, ageworthy Cabernet almost by default. Almost nobody picks early there, and nobody at all puts Cabernet through whole-cluster carbonic. Picking well ahead of full ripeness preserves acidity and keeps alcohol down; carbonic maceration extracts vivid fruit and aromatics while leaving tannin behind. What comes out the other side is a Red Mountain Cabernet you can chill and drink by the tumbler, which should not work and does.
The fruit comes from four acres of own-rooted vines planted in 2005, the same block that produces the estate's flagship bottling.
Farming — Demeter Certified Biodynamic since 2011, and farmed completely organically from the first planting in 2005. Maggie, Christophe, and their two sons live on the property, surrounded on all sides by the vineyard, which is exactly why the certification happened. The question of what gets sprayed on those four acres was never an abstract one for this family.
Winemaking — Whole cluster carbonic maceration. Spontaneous fermentation with native yeasts. Bottled unfined and unfiltered, and released young in the nouveau tradition. Low alcohol by design.
The Producer — Domaine Magdalena is the vision of Maggie Hedges, who grew up in Northern California working through her father's cellar and ended up, somewhat improbably, farming a brown hill in eastern Washington. She was in telecommunications when she met Christophe Hedges in 2002; he had just come off a post-college year on the rodeo circuit and was running the fledgling tasting room at his parents' winery, Hedges Family Estate. She left the corporate job, moved to Red Mountain in early 2003, and worked her first harvest that year as a lab assistant.
Her education was steep. Some of her earliest dinners with her future in-laws were blind tastings. She and Christophe married in 2004 and, rather than take a honeymoon, spent everything they had on a small parcel across the road from the family winery and planted it the following spring.
Maggie is the owner and grower; Christophe handles fermentation. Five acres, four planted, one family living in the middle of it. The flagship Cabernet is a study in restraint, coming in around 12.5% alcohol in a place that regularly pushes fifteen. Li'l Mag takes that same instinct and pushes it as far as it will go. It is one of the most purely fun bottles being made in Washington, and a genuine one-off.
Drink It With — Charcuterie, burgers, pizza, grilled sausages, roast chicken, a picnic, or Thanksgiving dinner, which is what nouveau was invented for.
Domaine Magdalena 'Li'l Mag' Nouveau of Cabernet Sauvignon
Grapes — 100% Cabernet Sauvignon
Region — Red Mountain AVA, Columbia Valley, Washington
Tasting Notes — Bright, translucent ruby with a violet flash. Crunchy red berry, wild strawberry, and pomegranate on the nose, lifted by rose petal, black pepper, and a dusty herbal edge of oregano and dried sage. The palate is juicy, snappy, and almost weightless, with barely-there tannins and a bright acid line that keeps everything darting forward. Low in alcohol and built entirely for pleasure. Serve it properly chilled, around 55°F, and watch the bottle vanish.
The Wine — A nouveau made from early-picked Cabernet Sauvignon, whole-cluster carbonic maceration, native yeast, bottled young and unfined and unfiltered. Made in the spirit of Beaujolais Nouveau, which on Red Mountain is a genuinely subversive act.
Red Mountain is Washington's most concentrated red wine site: a south-facing hill between Benton City and West Richland on gravel, sand, loess, and fine sediment, and a place that grows big, dark, ageworthy Cabernet almost by default. Almost nobody picks early there, and nobody at all puts Cabernet through whole-cluster carbonic. Picking well ahead of full ripeness preserves acidity and keeps alcohol down; carbonic maceration extracts vivid fruit and aromatics while leaving tannin behind. What comes out the other side is a Red Mountain Cabernet you can chill and drink by the tumbler, which should not work and does.
The fruit comes from four acres of own-rooted vines planted in 2005, the same block that produces the estate's flagship bottling.
Farming — Demeter Certified Biodynamic since 2011, and farmed completely organically from the first planting in 2005. Maggie, Christophe, and their two sons live on the property, surrounded on all sides by the vineyard, which is exactly why the certification happened. The question of what gets sprayed on those four acres was never an abstract one for this family.
Winemaking — Whole cluster carbonic maceration. Spontaneous fermentation with native yeasts. Bottled unfined and unfiltered, and released young in the nouveau tradition. Low alcohol by design.
The Producer — Domaine Magdalena is the vision of Maggie Hedges, who grew up in Northern California working through her father's cellar and ended up, somewhat improbably, farming a brown hill in eastern Washington. She was in telecommunications when she met Christophe Hedges in 2002; he had just come off a post-college year on the rodeo circuit and was running the fledgling tasting room at his parents' winery, Hedges Family Estate. She left the corporate job, moved to Red Mountain in early 2003, and worked her first harvest that year as a lab assistant.
Her education was steep. Some of her earliest dinners with her future in-laws were blind tastings. She and Christophe married in 2004 and, rather than take a honeymoon, spent everything they had on a small parcel across the road from the family winery and planted it the following spring.
Maggie is the owner and grower; Christophe handles fermentation. Five acres, four planted, one family living in the middle of it. The flagship Cabernet is a study in restraint, coming in around 12.5% alcohol in a place that regularly pushes fifteen. Li'l Mag takes that same instinct and pushes it as far as it will go. It is one of the most purely fun bottles being made in Washington, and a genuine one-off.
Drink It With — Charcuterie, burgers, pizza, grilled sausages, roast chicken, a picnic, or Thanksgiving dinner, which is what nouveau was invented for.