Double Gold, 2024 Pacific Northwest Wine Competition
Double Gold, 2024 Hilton Head Food & Wine Festival
Gold, 2025 San Francisco Chronical Competition
Gold, 2024 Great NW Competition
Gold, 2024 Winemaker Challenge International Wine Competition
95 Points, Pacific Northwest Wine Competition

Three words are necessary to understand what a truly great Washington State Cab can taste like: Quintessence. Quintessence. Quintessence. 

Bad joke, perhaps, but Argonne Cellars is particularly fortunate to be sourcing our grapes from one of the best AVAs for Cabernet Sauvignon in the state. Hmm, let’s correct that, “one of the finest in the world.” (And that would be a quote from Wine Enthusiast.)

These grapes produce a dense, rich cab. The first thing that’ll strike you is the color. Deeper color at the edge than others from lesser AVAs. This Cab challenges all those other color doyennes, even Petit Verdot. 

It is a well-structured and powerful wine with excellent mouth feel that offers the drinker a new discovery at every sip, and it delivers until the bottle is drained…and you’re starting to debate whether to open another. 

Red Mountain AVA
Quintessence Vineyard

90% Cabernet Sauvignon
7% Malbec
3% Petit Verdot

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Best in Class, Platinum, 2024 San Diego International Wine Challenge
Double Gold, 2024 Pacific Northwest Wine Competition
Double Gold, 2024 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition
Gold, 2024 Hilton Head Food & Wine Festival
94 Points, Pacific Northwest Wine Competition
94 Points, Rich Cook, Wine Review Online

This magnificent award-winning Syrah is grown from the world-famous Phelps Clone stock. It comes from a vineyard with a terroir that produces the boldest, most fruit-forward wine you’ll ever encounter.

It fairly cries out for a porterhouse. In fact, it’ll eat the porterhouse all by itself if you’re not careful. 

Red Heaven Vineyard
Red Mountain AVA

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Library Wine - Available to our Wine Club Members only

Double Gold, 2024 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition
Double Gold, 2024 Pacific Northwest Wine Competition
Double Gold, 2024 Great NW Competition
Double Gold, 2024 Hilton Head Food & Wine Festival
94 Points, Pacific Northwest Wine Competition

Poor Petit Verdot. It toils in anonymity; at best many will simply say, “well, that’s the blending grape, right?” The French called it Petit Verdot (“small, green”) almost as a complaint about its late ripening, almost too-painful-to-watch, challenge in ever reaching maturity.

But all it ever needed was a warmer climate. So, to those of us who’ve gotten to know this varietal in all its New World style, and single varietal, glory? Wow. It’s a real pleaser with extraordinarily rich color and intense flavors. 

And when it’s grown in the Red Mountain AVA with its blast furnace heat? It doesn’t get any better than this. Literally. 

In fact, this little demon won a Double Gold at the most prestigious wine competition in North America, the San Francisco Wine Competition. Small and green? Not anymore.

Red Mountain AVA
Stanton Vineyard

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Gold, 2024 Pacific Northwest Wine Competition
Gold, 2024 Hilton Head Food & Wine Festival
Gold, 2024 Great NW Competition
92 Points, 2024 Pacific Northwest Wine Competition

Le vin noir de Cahors as the French used to call it. “The black grape.” Truly, one of the most the most badass, teeth-staining creations on the planet. High in polyphenols, it’s almost a health tonic, for God’s sakes. 

This is another of our award-winning 2020 reds from Red Mountain. We feel that 2020 was a pretty superb year to launch a winery. It had great growing conditions and, if anything, very aggressive pruning due to lessened COVID demand. It all added up to amazingly concentrated flavors. 

Like all our reds, this Malbec is deep, rich, and with more fruit than you can imagine. When we pressed this wine, it was super juicy and just kept producing and producing and producing. And all with zero flavor or color diminution. We literally ran out of barrel space with this varietal.

Red Mountain AVA
Stanton Vineyard

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Silver, 2024 Pacific Northwest Wine Competition

Funny thing about the word “Sérendipité” …while it IS a French word adapted from English, many French do not necessarily understand it. This wine is a lot like that.

It’s blend of three Bordeaux varietals but in an unabashedly New World effort and by using decidedly non-French style methodology. It celebrates the power of what a suite of grapes from the Red Mountain AVA can truly do. 

And while these three are unapologetically badass just like all our wine from Red Mountain, an interesting thing happened. Because they were not blended, but rather they were barreled together, they ended up very integrated.

Hence the name “Sérendipité” …a little bit of a double entendre that someone from Bordeaux probably wouldn’t understand. But who cares? We’re guessing you will...  

Red Mountain AVA
Quintessence Vineyard
Stanton Vineyard

50% Cabernet Sauvignon
25% Malbec
25% Petit Verdot

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Library Wine - Available to our Wine Club Members only

Best in Category, 2025 Winemaker Challenge International Wine Competition
Platinum, 2025 Winemaker Challenge International Wine Competition
Double Gold, 2025 Pacific Northwest Competition
97 Points, 2025 Winemaker Challenge International Wine Competition

In 2021, Washington experienced a very warm growing season with record-breaking heat in late June and historically low yields at harvest. The extreme heat reduced berry and cluster sizes, although the Quintessence Vineyard managed this challenge well. 2021 was among the warmest on record, comparable to 2015. And then, with a perfect confluence of events, cooler temperatures in September and October allowed for an extended hang time.

The result? Very intense, flavorful wine. But yet, this particular vintage has that softness and velvety characteristic to the tannins that most of us seek in a sophisticated cabernet.

Red Mountain AVA
Quintessence Vineyard

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Silver, 2025 San Francisco Chronicle Competition
Silver, 2025 Winemaker Challenge

The 2021 growing season on Washington's Red Mountain experienced a warm, dry spring, a record-breaking heatwave in late June, and historically low yields. These conditions resulted in unusually intense, powerful, and concentrated wines. Although the heat accelerated ripening, leading to an early and frost-free harvest in September and October, it also caused the vines to shed fruit during flowering which contributed to the reduced crop size. Notably, berry size was significantly reduced, even by Red Mountain standards, which contributed to an intense flavor profile.

Red Mountain AVA
Red Heaven Vineyard

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Double Gold, 2025 Pacific Northwest Competition

The 2021 growing season presented unique challenges and opportunities, starting with a warm, dry spring and culminating in a record-breaking late June heatwave. This led to historically low yields but also created unusually intense, powerful, and concentrated wines.

The accelerated ripening allowed for an early and frost-free harvest in September and October. Despite a reduced crop size due to fruit shedding during flowering and smaller berries, the quality of the grapes sourced from Stanton Vineyard was exceptional.

We are thrilled with our second Petit Verdot vintage. While this varietal is often considered a minor blending grape, particularly in France where it can be challenging to ripen, we have found that it truly thrives in the unique conditions of Red Mountain. We are excited for you to experience how special this wine is.

Red Mountain AVA
Stanton Vineyard

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Gold, 2025 Winemaker Challenger
91 Points, 2025 Winemaker Challenger

Argonne Cellars is thrilled to share some insights into our exceptional 2021 Malbec, sourced exclusively from the renowned Stanton Vineyard on Red Mountain. This award-winning Malbec comes from a unique block of just over 5 acres, planted with Clone 9 Malbec at an elevation of 700 feet. This specific clone, originally from the Bordeaux vineyards in the Gironde area, was carefully selected for Red Mountain to honor its French origins.

The 2021 growing season involved a range of conditions that influenced the characteristics of the wine.  It began with a warm, dry spring, which led to bud break two weeks earlier than usual. A significant heat dome arrived in late June, setting unprecedented temperature records and placing considerable stress on the vines. Blustery weather during flowering combined with this intense heat resulted in some fruit set issues and "shatter," leading to historically low yields across the region. The mid-summer heat accelerated the vines' ripening process, causing harvest to begin and conclude two weeks ahead of schedule. The synergy of these low yields and intense heat has produced wines of incredible power, ripeness, and concentration.

Red Mountain AVA
Stanton Vineyard

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This release marks the second follow-up to our original “Sérendipité” and offers a distinct twist compared to its predecessor. While the first blend was defined by an unabashedly New World Style, this latest version represents a thoughtful departure from the bold character typically found in our Red Mountain wines. Instead, it was intentionally crafted to more closely resemble a classic French Style Bordeaux blend.

The composition of this wine is a masterful blend featuring two grapes traditionally considered “minor” in Bordeaux blends: Malbec and Petit Verdot. These are complemented by Merlot, which is typically one of the “leading” grapes in such blends. This deliberate approach honors the subtle nuances that can be achieved when grapes from the Red Mountain AVA are combined with the intention of producing a more understated and refined wine.

Stanton Vineyard
53% Malbec
34% Petit Verdot
13% Merlot

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