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June 18, 2005
Three Blind Cabs
I have a habit of wandering through wine stores and picking up single bottles of wine that I think might be interesting or worthy of stocking up on. But, what usually happens, is that I put the bottle aside, the wine sells out and I am stuck with all of these "tasting experiments." I decided to knock off three experiments at once and took three bottles along to dinner at my local French Bistro to taste blind.
- 2001 Robert Mondavi Winery Cabernet Sauvignon Oakville - USA, California, Napa Valley, Oakville
Color is opaque and a very youngish purple/red. Has a good and vibrant nose of dark fruit - blackberry - and dark chocolate, leaves pronounced alcoholic legs on sides of glass. The palate shows very ripe fruit, verging on pruney tastes; highly extracted and slightly sweet on the finish. There are grippy tannins on the chocolately finish with a very slight bitter aftertaste. Wine has the stuffing to improve with age for one or two years. This wine seemed overripe or, perhaps, overengineered to me. It wasn't at all refreshing.(87 pts.) - 2001 Kirkland Cabernet Sauvignon - USA, California, Sonoma County, Alexander Valley
Not surprisingly, I found this in the wine section of the SoMA COSTCO in San Francisco, and hoping to cop a real find, I took home a bottle to try. The nose was really nice showing excellent spice and strong notes of black pepper. Unfortunately, after you put it in your mouth its all downhill. The wine has a medium body, but has strong tastes of green and stems. The bitter, tannic finish would even ruin this for cooking wine. Do Not Put In Mouth.(79 pts.) - 2001 Beringer Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Knights Valley Vineyard - USA, California, Sonoma County, Knights Valley
The nose was correct, if unexciting, showing some slightly candied fruit aromas. Medium-light body with good balance between the oak, tannins, fruit and alcohol. Pleasant to drink and after it was open for 10 mintues or so, it opened up showing a smooth chocolately finish. I was hoping this was going to be a great QPR like the 1994 vintage was. However this is merely inoffensive. I will not buy any more.(88 pts.)
I didn't feel so bad this time. None of the experiments succeeded, so I didn't have any reason to regret not having jumped on a great value when I had the chance.
Posted by Paul at June 18, 2005 11:10 AM | Wine Tasting