Community Tasting Note
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sfwinelover1 wrote: 88 points
August 4, 2021 - Second of 2 ($11.99@; first given to a friend, per the below!) from a recent Costco purchase. On the nose and palate, cherries, plums, and lesser notes of mixed dark berries and cassis, anise, leather, dark florals, ground spice, vanilla, oak, and dark roast coffee. Dark purplish brown, light to medium bodied, light legs. Medium acidity and tannins, no heat. Medium complexity, medium- persistence and intensity. I used to be a semi-regular drinker of this bottling before the wine spend went up a number of years ago, and am still a semi-regular buyer, but mostly as something to bring to friends who aren't wine people who are likely to serve it to people who, when asked what they'd like to drink, say "something red", or who will leave it sitting next to the hot water heater for a few years (for those of you in comparable economic circumstances to mine who'd bring an Abreu Thor or a Colgin Cariad, I say, bless your little hearts, and you're welcome at my house any time! And btw, CT friends, don't fear that this is something I'd bring to one of our tastings!); still, I wanted to make sure that this was still no worse than quaffable so any invites where I bring this won't be my last. Reasonably well-balanced between sweet and savory (with a tilt toward to the sweet), fruit and structure (with a tilt toward the fruit) and power and subtlety (although neither word would leap to mind), this pleasant, easy-drinking cab blend is much as I remember it. Good with food (burgers and pasta) and as a standalone, ready to go as a PnP (also part of the reason I'm drinking it, as I needed something after finishing the Arcanum with friend Steve), surprisingly well-delineated in its notes, and likely to hang in there for another 2-4+ years, this wine is a good choice in its price range, and while I'm not going to spend the rest of my winedrinking life checking this, I suspect it's better than 90+% of the Napa/Sonoma cabs among its competitors. About the worst things I can find to say about this is that it suffers against what I usually drink, is a bit boring (or to use an even deadlier CT epithet, corporate), and the acidity on the tail became much more pronounced on night 3. This will live on for another day for my purposes and keep its place in the cheapo HoF, and if, heaven help me, my fortunes reverse markedly, I'd certainly drink it with more regularity before I'd subsidize my nagging if occasional habit of HSS's, Abreus, Ovids, Spottswoodes, Dominuses (Domini?), etc. by selling pencils, apples, or whatnot on street corners (I know: that's a lot of pencils). 88+
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6 Comments
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Mark1npt commented:
8/5/21, 1:32 PM - Just sounds like a nice everyday drinker? We can't ask for more at this price point, can we?
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sfwinelover1 commented:
8/5/21, 1:44 PM - Well said, Mark. As my sis would put it, a quaffing wine. Since my alcohol consumption has turned to pretty much 100% wine, and with wine, unlike beer, I'm often in situations where what's there is, at best, uninspiring (I can pretty much count on even the diviest bars and friends in greater SF having high quality beer in a way they'll never have any of the priciest wines (or even something like the Arcanum) at all, let alone by the glass, the quest becomes how to enjoy something that's unexceptional but good for what it is amidst the very good, and sometimes fantastic, wines we typically drink. This falls into that former category, especially if you get it at a place like Costco (your corner liquor store may charge $20+ for this, at which price I'd be decidedly less enthusiastic). I sense that most of my friends on the site are in some part of the upper middle class, incredibly fortunate by any relative standard but not any kind of rich, so that dropping one of our highest end bottles, in which we might only get a glass, on our friends who may not be able to tell it from the Simi seems an extraordinary extravagance, so, for me at least, this definitely has a place.
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Mark1npt commented:
8/5/21, 1:47 PM - Right on point, sf! Good explanation. I'm opening one of the Arcanum for dinner with HMC and my great red sauce tomorrow night......will post end of night!
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Robwild commented:
10/15/22, 7:36 PM - SF - Quite a long, but spot on review for what I like to refer to as a "PNP Crowd Pleaser" for the as you denote the "I'll have 'something red" wine drinker. A good reminder to keep a couple of these on hand, since otherwise we're forced to grab something that won't be appreciated from the cellar.
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Mark1npt commented:
10/15/22, 7:47 PM - Lol, Rob.......far too many great wines are wasted on people who'd never know it or appreciate it! Well said!
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sfwinelover1 commented:
10/15/22, 8:10 PM - Just unashamedly picked up another bottle of this, a Wairu River SB (primarily for cooking) and a ‘18 Tig at Costco. It’s the good, the bad and the ugly at sfwl’s abode!