Community Tasting Note

• sid_loves_wine Likes this wine: 92 points

  July 19, 2021 - Fun stuff- I really liked it, but I wish I could rate it higher. Really good for the $25 Costco price, but unfortunately it's usually priced way higher and doesn't represent stellar QPR for me- especially not when the far superior MFN Cab Sauv is only barely more expensive.
  
  This is very much a fun and dumb kind of wine that fully leans into its character, which I absolutely mean in a good way. It's impossible to get a sense of what each of the many grapes are contributing to the blend- not only is it a fairly random mix of varietals, but it's extremely ripe, and there's a lot of heavy oak. That said, I love the expressivity here- it isn't trying to achieve superficial balance, and is stronger for it.
  
  Pronounced nose with a ton of rich black fruit, some almost-fresh, some baked- blackberry pie, creme de cassis, etc. An equally powerful and very high-quality oak tone with vanilla bean and a vivid scent of sweetened coffee, mocha, etc. That's all I got, a blast of black fruit and expensive oak, but it excels in the powerful delivery.
  
  Palate is about the same as the nose with black fruit and sweet coffee. Although I know this isn't meant to be an acid-driven wine, it comes close to feeling too watery for my palate. Yeah, this is why people call it "smooth", the biggest red flag for me in a wine. There's juuuuust enough acidity and tannin that it's still delicious, but it could use a little more of each to assist the rich fruit and oak flavors. There's no point in aging this long term, or even at all- no need to soften anything when it's already incredibly soft and easy, and the great fruit/oak combo is already fully expressive.
  
  This lack of seriousness is where the MFN Cab comes in. $15-$20 more and you get a wine that's similar in character, but twice as expressive- and although it's not meant to be acid-driven either, it has more than enough energy and structure to feel complete. The Cab punches above it's price, but this isn't a $40 wine, more like a killer $20 one.

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3 Comments

• Mark1npt commented:

  7/19/21, 7:38 PM - Very good to know, Sid......

• WagesOfZin commented:

  7/21/21, 6:28 PM - This note is spot on in regard to my experience with this wine. I haven't had an opportunity to taste the cab, but my assessment of the Harvey and Harriet was right in line. I refer to wines like this as "big dumb wine" and this is surely that. As very well made example, but nonetheless...

• sid_loves_wine commented:

  7/23/21, 8:55 AM - Haha, glad you agree! The Cab is honestly very similar, just even more powerful and with an impressive amount of structure/energy to meet the fruit. It's still a fun/dumb wine, but in my opinion a VERY strong example of one and easily worth the $45 Costco price.

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