Varietal - Cabernet Sauvignon
* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
Accessible, medium-weight, and in the international style. The typical South African earth and iodine notes are nicely tamed here. They compliment rather than obscure the dry, dark berry fruit, offering just enough character keep this from being generic. Finishes with cocoa hints.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
This is a soft, gentle Cabernet for drinking now. It’s pleasantly rich, offering blackberry, cherry, chocolate and cedar flavors, wrapped into easy tannins.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
This is a super-spicy Cabernet, front-loaded with pepper and Chinese five spice, that shows the briary, rustic nature of Dry Creek Valley red wines. It’s very dry, with a juicy core of black and red fruits. Drink now through 2010.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
Huge wine, young and tannic, almost bitter now and not offering much relief. But of course you don’t buy Beringer PR tonight. There is indeed enormous Cabernet flavor deep down inside, offering oodles of blackberries and cherries and charry new oak, but there’s also a warning note of prune. Best after 2008.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
A wonderful Cabernet, rich and complex, that advances the cause of this inland Santa Barbara Valley for Bordeaux varieties. Tasted against fine Cabs from Napa Valley, it did just fine, with intricate blackberry, cassis and currant flavors. Work needs to be done on the tannins, to give them greater definition, although it’s hard to tell if that’s a function of the grapes or the barrels.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
The Scotsdale has a straightforward plum-berry profile, with a creamy mouthfeel. Tannins cling nicely on the finish. Not as good in this reviewer’s opinion as Howard Park’s Leston Cab—but at least there is regional difference between the bottlings.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
This is loaded with mixed fruit flavors, in fact it’s a bit of a fruit salad of a wine. But it lacks definition or specificity, tasting more like a good mutt wine than a superpremium Cabernet. It’s pleasant and ready to drink now.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
One of Chile’s go-to Best Buy Cabernets. Always solid and well made, with this vintage giving off hickory, rubber and blackberry aromas in front of a rich, tannic palate of wild berry, mesquite and leathery flavors. Roasted and heady on the finish, with big bones and structure.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
Heavy and ripe, but also floral and rich, with satisfying, intriguing aromatics. Draws you in with smoky notes of boysenberry, black plum and bitter chocolate, and then seals the deal with a firm, balanced, moderately tannic finish. Imported by Austral Wines.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
A surprising misstep from this fine winery and consulting winemaker Ben Glaetzer. The characteristic Mitolo/Glaetzer creamy-textured tannins are there, but the flavors are a bit simple and grapy, marked by peppery, leafy notes. It is awfully young, so maybe it will pull together in a another few months.
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