To be classified as a Cabernet Sauvignon, California wines must contain at least 70% of that varietal. This one has 79% cab, 13% merlot, 5% cab franc, 2% petite verdot and 1% malbec — truly a blend. And, the grapes are from three ranches are in Solano, Napa and Sonoma Counties… hence the name.
Tonight, we decided to just pop this one open and enjoy while we relaxed watching the last few NCAA Football games of the day… so, alas, no food pairing to mention with this one.
This wine has a beautiful rich, dark ruby color and was rather stingy to give away anything on the nose other than vanilla (yep, oak… and remember, this is a California wine). I didn’t decant this one, but rather poured through the Vinturi which usually opens them nicely…. this one, however, held tight. After a good bit of swirling, trying in desperation to infuse as much air as I could, it finally gave up a hint of dried cherry. Mind you, this was not easy to find. I felt like I had gone spelunking in some pre-historic cavern only to find a single piece of dried cherry… honestly, that’s just how tight this was. Made me wonder if I’d get anything on the flavor other than tannic oak.
But, thankfully, I did. Of course, the first and heaviest thing I got was a huge piece of oak to chew on. Granted, this was a very smooth piece of oak — it instantly had me thinking of a gorgeous oak executive desk. You know, the type of desktop that you just want to sit at and glide your hand over? Wonderful in furniture, not so great in my glass. In fact, only once I managed to get past the oak did I finally find a smoky dark fruit/chocolate profile that was lead by that dried cherry. So, let’s make that a burnt oak desk that had a handful of dark fruit in a drawer, most of which are dried cherries with some dark chocolate chips. That should paint a pretty good picture for you. And then……………… the tannins hit. POW! Really dry…. really, really dry. Wow. This is a wine that will make the inside of your cheeks feel like you’ve sucked on gauze for several hours. Pretty much tells me that this one will sit for a good while… that is, if you consider 5-7 years a good while.
I’ve been taking a break from wine writing for the past week or so, as my health hasn’t been great and I just haven’t been in the right mood to write. Today was quite cool, however, so I decided to open up a bottle of the 2005 Woot Cellars Humbug! (A Melancholy Red). When I first bought this wine, I wasn’t very impressed with it. Even with decanting, it didn’t taste all that great and felt too hot, even at only 13.8% alcohol. However, each bottle has gotten progressively mellower throughout the year and this one seems to be the best so far.