Tag Archives: Cabernet Sauvignon

Knappstein Enterprise Cabernet Sauvignon 1998

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We bought this bottle on holiday at the winery back in October 2002; it was one of the few bottles that wasn’t stolen when our car was broken into in Melbourne a few weeks later. It’s survived two moves – to Washington and back to California – and here it is on a warm Spring afternoon in San Diego. It’s survived and then some.Still somewhat youthfully purple in color with only the faintest hints of aging, the nose is still redolent of warm, dark berries, rich, smooth cedar, and just-cooled vanilla custard. It’s all blackberry jam and custard, served in a Haida bent cedar box (or it could be a Japanese hinoki sake cup, I’m not entirely sure about that).The initial impression is surprise that it hasn’t aged, but then it moves fairly quickly towards a somewhat tannic, disjointed, acidic finish. Hm, strange. Let’s try this again, shall we? The second time around is a winner, with brightly tart cherry fruit straining – and succeeding, to a point – to make itself heard about the maelstrom of decay that’s the base of the wine. The impression is nearly that of a lavender licorice Sweet Tart; it is at fairly complex and mostly still hanging in there just fine, thank you. However, there’s a certain puckery assault on the gums that happens that I’m not a fan of, and the finish is more something I’d expect at a Tijuana dentist’s than a leather-upholstered steakhouse.So: was this wine better when we bought it? Perhaps, but I’m not convinced. Some of the haptics of this wine (if I’m even allowed to use that word!) are disconcerting and unwelcome, but there’s still enough beauty and pleasure here to save it for me. On some level, though, I probably shouldn’t have waited quite so long, dang it.Update: After sitting with this wine for another half an hour, I’m thinking that the problem isn’t age, but cork taint. With some air, it seems more likely that there’s low level TCA contamination here which is causing problems – and that’s a real shame, because I’d guess that a good bottle of this wine would be a wonderful thing indeed 11 years on. Oh well. 🙁Knappstein
Price: $NA
Closure: Cork

Henschke Keyneton Estate Euphonium 2006

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Travel for reasons other than leisure is surely one of the loneliest pastimes. I’m currently away from home and, to relieve the tedium yesterday evening, wandered about looking for something moderately interesting to eat and drink. The idea of dining alone in a restaurant didn’t hold much appeal, so I rocked up to a local wine and cheese shop hoping for a solution. Half bottles are ideal in such situations and, fortunately, a small range was on offer, including this wine. A few minutes after spotting it, I was on my way back to the hotel, also equipt with

Foundry Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon 2003

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Such beautiful packaging, and such a shame to unwrap the bottle from its stylish red paper, but my cat just got back from the vet and deserved something to help him overcome the trauma, so there you go. This has been languishing in my cellar for years, picked up in Walla Walla during their spring tasting weekend; that time, I had stayed in the Bridal Suite at the Howard Johnson’s – don’t laugh, it was only $5 more, and turned out to have fewer amenities than their usual rooms, but I digress.I was shocked to smell this at first; the first impression is of, well, shit. Ewww. However, once you get past the shock, it does improve, but the bad smell seems to be on an endless, faulty merry-go-round with the other smells of Walla Walla fruit and Kalamata olive. I… am not a fan, admittedly; this smelled quite a bit different when I tasted the wine on site.Thankfully, when you get it past your nose and into your mouth, what you get is a lovely, elegant, supple Washington cabernet that is everything that good wines from that state are: brightly/subtly acidic in the background, with rich, lush, ripe red fruits in the front, all set off nicely against a lumbering backdrop of quality French oak. There is also a very distinctive, very hard for me to describe of something like green olives, salt water, and stale fruitcake hovering around the midpalate; I have a feeling that this wine may be a bit de trop for your average American red wine drinker, but honestly? Try to see beyond the oddness and you may be richly rewarded.Bonus: Jim Dine did the label, which is quite handsome. This wine really does look and feel like a $100 cult Cabernet from California; it’s insanely good value.Foundry Vineyards
Price: $30
Closure: Cork

Casella Wines [yellow tail] The Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2007

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Why the hell not?

Very clean on the nose, and very correct too. This is textbook Cabernet, with some dusty leaf, some dark fruit and cedar oak. It’s also textbook in the sense that it feels a bit detached and clinical — if beauty relies on flaws, this wine’s aroma never quite approaches a sense of the beautiful because it’s just so correct. Not to linger too much on this point; there’s something to be said for a wine without distractions.

Taylors St Andrews Clare Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2004

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I’ve got a soft spot for Taylors, as much for the good value of its standard range as for the fact that I enjoyed many a good evening out on its wines before I became interested in what I drink, as opposed to being simply interested in drinking. St Andrews is Taylors’ premium label, a range I don’t have much experience with beyond the Riesling. I do enjoy a nice Clare red, though, so here goes with the St Andrews Cabernet Sauvignon from 2004.

If ever one wanted to illustrate the joys of New World winemaking, this would be a good wine to showcase. It’s just so correct and clean. A blast of pure, slightly sweet Cabernet fruit is the most prominent aroma, accompanied by varietal dust, regional eucalypt and umami galore (roast beef and gravy). Totally coherent and convincing, and not the least bit funky.

Langhorne Creek Area Red Blend 2003

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Only this afternoon I was listening to Max Allen’s Crush podcasts, which briefly discuss various Australian wine regions in Mr Allen’s typically fanciful style. The episode on Langhorne Creek discusses at some length the relative invisibility of this South Australian region, although plantings there are extensive. Fortuitously, I came across this wine when rummaging through the “cellar” at home. Not only is it a Langhorne Creek wine, but (according to the back label, anyway) is made expressly to showcase the region’s qualities. “Created” by Cellarmasters but made at Bleasdale, the wine was assembled from several growers’ grapes;

Grosset Gaia 2001

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I suppose we all come to a point in our drinking lives when we open yet another bottle of yet another respectable, well-regarded wine and shrug, jaded, resigning ourselves to yet another evening of predictable pleasure. What is to be done? Well, for starters, we train ourselves to pay more attention, to reach back into memory to remember why we’re here in the first place, what that first bottle was like, the time when the wine was the focus of everything, not the alcohol that washes away the cares of the day, not the hastily prepared food that serves as a haphazard coda to the day’s endeavors.So! This wine is getting on in years, its bouquet shot through with violets and summer strawberries and cream, edged with darker leather and tobacco. It’s as if someone spilled cassis liqueur in tobacconists with a significant overstock of paperback novels; it’s eating ice cream at a wake, it’s watching the London winter rage outside from within a greenhouse at Kew.Vibrant, acidic, with tannins that surprise quickly before fading entirely from view, I find the wine to be distinctly peppery and just a little bit simple; it’s much more an Old World model in terms of body, opting for nerve instead of plushness. Still, there’s a certain creaminess, languidly unfolding, that trails off into a finish that reminds me of unsmoked cigars you never knew your Dad smoked, but that you found poking around the basement as a child. All in all, this wine tastes like something unexpectedly retreived from memories you aren’t sure are yours to begin with, like a memory of wine drinkers past. It’s good.Grosset
Price: $28
Closure: Cork

Penfolds Bin 389 2002

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Exuberantly purple, this wine reeks of huge, fruity raspberries at first; this is the classic “raspberry motor oil” Randall Grahm joked about back in 2002. Look again, though, and you see a hint of age creeping in at the rim; you can also smell sweet camphor and bottle age in there as well.Relatively full body, bright acidity nicely frames a wine that isn’t lacking for flavor at all. At this point, what you get is more of a Cabernet style wine but with brash fruit that isn’t typically Cabernet. Ultimately, it’s a vibrant, boundless sort of wine that’s a hell of a lot of fun. Again, however, like the St Henri from last week, what’s lacking is a sense of place or style. However, at least this wine has firmer tannins to support all of that over-the-top fruitiness; that’s why I think this wine is in fact a better effort. (Costing half as much doesn’t hurt either.)Penfolds
Price: $18
Closure: Cork