Monday, June 20, 2011

Wine Snob: Cabernet Sauvignon Double Feature

Two great wines, one post.

On Servia's birthday, we went out to dinner at one of our favorite local restaurants. It's a lovely little Italian place and we brought a bottle of wine given to us by my mom's brother on his last visit. It was a 1998 Christopher Creek Cabernet Sauvignon from Dry Creek Valley (Bradford Mount). The wine was a dark ruby color and it was a medium bodied wine that was musty and spicy. I happened to read the label after I had written my account of the wine. It said: "rich, fruity, intense, full-bodied, ruby wine." It's interesting how a wine changes over the years. It balanced wonderfully with the food. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture.

On the night before Father's Day, on which we were also celebrating the birthday of a long-time friend of the family, we had another lovely wine. It was one of the Mystery Wines from Garagiste, meaning that it was repackaged under the name Renegade Wine Sellers. It was a 2007 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon from Columbia Valley, Washington.
Having a coding problem righting the bottle.

Unlike the 2007 Columbia Valley Red Wine packaged under Renegade's label which was merely mediocre, this was a fabulous wine. This fabulous Cabernet was aubergine and smelled acetone or the interior of an old trunk (the drinkers were divided in the assessment). It was a full bodied wine with notes of truffles, dark chocolate, with a bit of rich soil and a dash of nutmeg or cloves. As an important note, we let this wine decant for about two-three hours, or maybe a little more before drinking it because every review said it needed substantial decanting. I am glad we took that advice. I would highly recommend both the wine and the decanting of it.

A picture of the bottle is forthcoming.

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