Wine Focus (January) - Wine 101 Cabernet Sauvignon

[Robin Garr]

Jenise, I definitely had Chile in mind, but I was at Whole Foods anyway and spotted this one in the wine shop, so ....

[Jenise]

So on Friday night we had a huge celebration dinner with my brother and his husband. Originally scheduled to celebrate the closing on their new home, but given much bigger import--the biggest possible--by the news that tests early last week showed "no detectable cancer". I'll spare the deets, but his cancer was very aggressive and very advanced. No one predicted this good an outcome from the treatments.

So it was an occasion on which to pull out all the stops. I prepared lamb shanks braised with sherry, onions and green olives. With the best of intentions, I opened this wine which I expected to not be a great match, just an impressive wine from Chris' new home state and something we could enjoy while ignoring the usual intentions behind wine selection. Totally blew it:

2016 Leonetti Cellar Cabernet Sauvignon Walla Walla Valley
Opened and moved to decanter about 5 hours before serving for aeration, an effort that failed to provide the evolution desired. Obviously delicious but clunky as a food wine with braised lamb shanks, and thrown serious shade in that endeavor by a modest Priorat. HOLD.

Might as well introduce the Priorat:

2016 Herencia Del Padri Priorat Grenache Blend
Really only loosened up in the last hour of a four hour decant, and even then don't think it showed everything it will eventually given more cellar time. Nonetheless very nice now, traditional in style with sexy paprika and red chile notes that played well with lamb shanks in a sherry-onion sauce.

[David M. Bueker]

I feel for you Jenise. My Corison only hit its stride the next night.

[Jenise]

And like me, you probably had a couple dozen choices that would have turned out better, even in the showgirl category of wine.

[David M. Bueker]

• 2017 Riverain Cabernet Sauvignon Tench Vineyard - USA, California, Napa Valley, Oakville (2/2/2021)
  Tuesday night, and the work day was a grind. Warm this up from cellar temperature, then the sparks fly. Rich, plummy fruit, spice, cedar, it’s all there in a structured, stylish package. Given the pedigree of vineyard and winemaker, not to mention the final product, it’s a legitimate value in the array of high-end Napa Cabernet.

[David M. Bueker]

And like me, you probably had a couple dozen choices that would have turned out better, even in the showgirl category of wine.

So true. See my Riverain note above.

Well, blow me down...

Since posting above that I don't have any varietal Cabs, our wine tasting club has arranged a online tasting with Adam Lazarre of Cycles Gladiator Wines in California, and included in the joining fee are three bottles of wine including Cycles Gladiator Cabernet Sauvignon 2017

However the tasting date is 20 February, which is too late for this thread.....

It's not like we don't add stuff later on!

OK, so later it is

Our wine club organised a ZOOM wine tasting last night with Adam LaZarre in conjunction with a local independent wine shop stockist of his wines. Adam is winemaker and owner of California brand Cycles Gladiator and we got three wines, including this:-

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2017 Cycles Gladiator Cabernet Sauvignon (USA, California)

This in fact 87% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Merlot and 4% Petit Verdot. Adam says he blends in the other varieties to make the Cabernet more like Cabernet (No, me neither). The 2018 must have been atypical since it has only 76% Cabernet!

Grapes are sourced from Paso Robles, Mendocino and Lodi. He made a point of telling us the Merlot came from Margarita Vineyards, so presumably this means something to California audiences.

My first impression of this wine, and which I wrote down, was Sweet Bramble Jam, and the sweetness made it for easy drinking on its own. Jo said it was 'velvety', but my initial impression didn't change - I thought it was just too sugary.

I used ZOOMs Chat function to ask the amount of Residual Sugar (RS). Adam said that Cabernet can get to 15% abv, but this wine was just 13.5% abv (the Chardonnay was 14.5% abv and the 2018 vintage Cab is 14.5%). Adam said he stopped fermentation to prevent high abv levels, ( which to my understanding would mean there was unfermented sugar left.) I was not convinced by Adams eventual answer of 2g/L RS.

So, a crowd pleasing wine, inexpensive for California and I'd be OK with drinking it at a party, but as a food wine I'd prefer a drier style.

[David M. Bueker]

2 g/l would actually seem likely, as any higher risks weird things happening later.

Margarita Vineyard is notable from its origins with Mondavi. It was the Mondavis who planted it, but ownership has since gone back to the original owners of the ranch.

[Jenise]

Interesting that David knew of Margarita vineyard. I don't, and am originally a Californian, so obviously some people know of it but it's not a household name like a lot of California vineyards. And too, merlot is not a big deal in California and vineyard-specific merlots therefore of even less note compared to the kind of interest there is in Cabernet and Pinot Noir single vineyards.

Peter, I've never had these wines though I've seen them about--they hit that place of label bias I have. One look and I think 'avoid'. I have no idea what the name means but this is the playful look of many of the wines that come out of Paso, a beautiful hot-weather country-western-music oriented area, much of which was the wine open spaces of Hollywood's western films. John Wayne probably rode every inch of it. Labels of the restrained elegance of, say, a Latour, wouldn't sell well there. So the contents of the bottle don't surprise me; unfortunately, that sweetness of fairly unavoidable and what you call 'bramble' might be what I call 'bug spray' which seems to affect a lot of Paso reds.

[David M. Bueker]

the wine open spaces

Typo of the year!

[Jenise]

I I have no idea what the name means

Gladiator was the name of a bicycle manufacturer in late 1800s Paris.

The image is from their advertisements. Like other bike companies of the time the advertising was aimed at women; the bicycle was said to be the greatest advance to female freedom as it meant women could travel out on their own.

The picture was intended to suggest the freedom owning a bike would give a woman.

The original poster is shown here https://cyclesgladiator.com/#our-story

The California wine company sponsors female charities

The label was banned for a time in Alabama by the state alcohol monopoly. Adam says it gave publicity they couldn't have bought and sales soared. It was noted that the Albama legislature building had many nude statues.

what you call 'bramble' might be what I call 'bug spray'.

Not at all like any bug spray I've encountered This is what I meant by brambles, they're the thorny canes on which grow blackberries, raspberries and similar soft fruits

20200729_blackberries.jpg

Thicken the wine and I could have it liberally spread on these

20200913_scones.png

the wine tasted of sweet blackberry/raspberry jam

[Jenise]

Thanks for the fill-in on the name, Peter, that's really pretty cool. I misjudged. BUT, I am admittedly easily put off by overly animated labels.

And that's usually what I mean by bramble too. I don't hear anyone else using the term 'bug spray' to describe the overly ripe red fruit of Paso wines. But it's what it reminds me of, the sweet aroma added to RAID etc. And that came about the usual way--had a really ripe, sweet Paso zin once, hated it, couldn't put a name to the particular thing I so disliked, and a few days later I had to kill some ants. THERE IT WAS.