Wine Review: Cupcake 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon

04/11/10 Cupcake Cabernet Cupcake Vineyards Central Coast CA Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 13.5 dark cherry not particularly strong. Blackberry and pepper. cherry and and blackberry – some cassis, but not overly tart. Delicious silky tannins and a moderate finish... but really, it plays it safe and doesn't deliver. 3

Wine Review: the Little Penguin 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon

OKAY Folks! It has been far too long. I am back, but treading cautiously. I'm slipping back into the blogosphere with an old review I had on deck. Keep reading, wine people! 

Cabernet Sauvignon is a tasty grape. The Little Penguin is a mass market gem. And ringing in at a whopping $5.99, this 2008 brings it... but the follow through... well what are we really hoping for at six bones? [Note, in 2012 - since I initially began this review, I've been told that the price has increased... So expect to pay $6.49...  Watch that wine budget! Wow.]

The color is deep and clear and a whiff gives off a bit of a kool-aid fake grape sort of nose. Nonetheless, the flavor is okay.

Yeah. I said it's "okay." Look - I usually have a lot more to say, but here... nope.

Conclusion:

Despite being nonoffensive to the nose or the palate, this super budget choice has little to offer. It's fine for the second or third bottle but don't break it out to start the party.

3 of 5 glasses.

Wine Review: Jacob's Creek 2007 Shiraz

Jacob's Creek is one of the largest exporters of wine in Australia. Since 1847, this well known brand has tended its vines in the Barossa Valley region of south Australia.

Of course, we're concerned about only a handful of things here. Is it easy to find? Is it cheap? Is it good?

Well it's definitely easy to find. I picked up this bottle of Jacob's Creek 2007 Shiraz at my local Wal-Mart. I've seen the brand in pharmacies, wine stores, and grocery stores. You should have no trouble picking it up. And to answer the second question - yes it is cheap. At $7.99, this bottle won't murder your wallet.

This wine entertains the nose with a distinct licorice/anise quality. Plum, cherry and blackberry fruit waft forth along with a whiff of oak.

The taste is a cherry fest, but lacking the fruit overkill of many wines. The structure of this wine doesn't fall apart in the mouth like yesterday's Alice White. It isn't building a house on the palate - not that kind of strength - but it might be building a tool shed up there. Other than the cherry, it constructs its little shed with a nice peppery oak nicely balanced with delicate acid.

3 of 5 glasses

Wine Review: Two Yellow Tails for Tuesday!

Yellow Tail is Australia's largest exporter and the number one wine (by volume) imported into the United States. This winery just exploded in the last ten years in the US market. In 2001, 200,000 cases of Yellow Tail were sold in the US. By 2008, that number had reached 8-million. That is a lot of wine!

Given the volume of wine sold under this label, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to explode the content level here and give you all a Two-for-Tuesday! Here they go, the 2009 Shiraz and the auspicious 2008 Reserve Shiraz.

Yellow Tail's Shiraz is up first. This is the exporter's flagship and I would guess the number-one selling red wine in America. Why? Volume, price and marketing. The shiraz/syrah grape makes up 25% of the red harvest in Australia. The brand is able to sell it at a very accessible price of $6.99. Lastly, the non-pretentious, fun, eye-catching yellow label just jumps off the shelf. Not to mention the fact that this label is plastered all over billboards, delivery trucks, and media of all sizes.

But does it live up to all the hype? Well, yes... and no.

The nose gives up a cherry vanilla aroma right away, but holds back on the rest. Maybe I'm just not smelling good tonight because I'm getting more out of this in the sip. There is a strong, perhaps over-oaked quality to the taste. However, other notes do sing through. A bit of black-tea comes in - or maybe I'm just confusing that with the tannins - but I really get a slight tea flavor as well as some fruit. There is strawberry, a bit of blackberry... a pinch or two of prune juice. It has that somewhat oily quality like i just licked a prune. Very interesting. Still, this really is by far NOT the sweetest of the week here in our trip down under. In fact, this wine really has a very bitter mid palate.

There is a little bit of clove in the mix as well. The finish is moderate and departs with a somewhat unsettling green pepper aftertaste.

3 of 5 glasses



Next up, Yellow Tail's Reserve Shiraz...

The reserve, from 2008, rings in a a somewhat heftier $10.99. It has a super dark cherry red color, and exceeds the '09 Shiraz in depth of color and viscosity. This wine has got some legs for a budget bottle.

The nose is a bit like a chocolate cherry - the candy kind. Not fresh out of the box, mind you! Not that somewhat cardboard-like, mass-produced chocolate... okay - maybe the mass produced kind. Imagine someone just bit into a cheap chocolate cherry from a box they picked up at the drug store... then they held it under your nose... that's the smell. That, and a bit of blueberry... a touch of oak... a twist of cracked pepper.

The flavors are interesting. Chocolate comes through quickly, but the blueberry steals the show. There is also a good sampling of blackberry and other dark fruit coming through in the mid palate. This is all accompanied by a bit of vanilla. The tannins are smooth and rounded. It dissipates in a bit of a green apple finish.

I can't say this is more interesting than the '09 Shiraz - but it is certainly better in its execution. The flavors work together. The structure is more coherent. The flavors are less bitter. On the other hand, it's about $4 more... but at $11.99 it's still quite a nice price.

3.5 of 5 glasses

Wine Review: Little Penguin 2008 Shiraz

"I come from a land down under
Where beer does flow and men chunder
Can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder?
You better run, you better take cover."

Yep. We're going to Australia this week, that strange and eerie land from south of the Equator. Rockin' some Men at Work... Throwin' another shrimp on the barbie... Keeping our babies safe from dingos. Okay I'm done with the cliches.

Australia is the fourth largest exporter of wine in the world, behind France, Italy and the USA. Each year, Australia produces 25% more Shiraz grapes than it does of it's second largest crop, Cabernet Sauvignon. I chose the Shiraz (known as Syrah to the rest of the world) varietal as my yardstick for this week for that and one other reason - I've never met a Shiraz that made me chunder. In fact, it seems like just about anyone can make a decent bottle of wine from Shiraz grapes.

On top of that, I really want to focus on the kind of bottle you can find in just about ANY store. The wines I'm reviewing this week should be in any Wal-Mart, Kroger, you name it. They are available in drive-thrus... in gas stations. You won't have too much trouble finding them.

And with these wines so readily available, at such low prices - I want to equip you with a bit of knowledge for the next time you're picking up an emergency bottle at the local CVS.

Let's start with the Little Penguin 2008 Shiraz.

This bargain find is available EVERYWHERE for about $5.99. Little Penguin is a great high-production winery and has really grown to challenge Yellow Tail's market share in the past few years. NOTE: I swiped today's picture from someone else. Usually I take my own. Meh...

This Shiraz is a dark rose, almost ruby color. The nose is fairly closed, but does impart a lot of fruit - primarily strawberry. We're not talking Boone's Farm strawberry here people - but it's definitely in there. There's a little oak coming through and a whiff of smoke.

The sip is jammy - bursting with that strawberry flavor. It really feels like drinking a spiked juice box - you know, the kind... stick it in the the crumb crucher's My Little Pony lunch box with a bologna sandwich and a gogurt... send her off to school... receive a call from the principal around 1 to talk about your darling daughter. By 2 you're meeting with someone from the state about your fitness as a parent... worried you'll never see her again.

Nope? Never happened to me either. But this stuff DOES taste pretty much like that. It kinda falls apart on the mid palate and the finish is a little hot.

CONCLUSION:

Though it's too fruity for my palate, this is a very drinkable wine for a very affordable price.

3 of 5 glasses

Wine Review: Monte Antico 2006 Toscana

Several weeks ago I did a post about corkscrews - which I would highly recommend you read... for another wine. But don't bother for this wine. Monte Antico's 2006 Toscana has a screw cap.


*Disclaimer: I'm about to go off on a tangent. If you only care about the way the wine tastes, skip to the picture below.

My only real problem with a screw-cap is that I can't help but feel like I'm about to crack into a brown bag of malt liquor - but What does a screw cap really mean? There really is a fair amount of debate on the subject and I'm not going to get too into it now. Suffice it to say that some argue the screw cap prevents breathing which stops the aging process. Others argue that the screw cap preserves a tastier wine and avoids cork taint and other flavor faults. This, along with economic factors seems also to have driven many winemakers to plastic corks. Italy, however, has largely leaned toward the screw-cap.

While we're learning, I want to point out that this particular blend is a Super Tuscan. So just what is a Super Tuscan? Look it isn't going to leap tall buildings in a single bound or anything like that. This naming just has to do with politics and control.

Italy has a tremendous winemaking history going back to ancient times. I recall my trip to Pompeii. The tour guide pointed out the wine bar, still preserved after being encased in Vesuvius' deadly ash cloud nearly 2000 years ago. Still, that is young in terms of this wine region. The Greeks established viticulture 800 years before Christ and the local population produced wine from wild grapes for millenia before that.

Given such a tradition, it is only fitting that there be some kind of standardization - thus the Denominazione di Origine Controllata (DOC) was established in 1963. The DOC essentially requires that the grapes are grown in certain regions, harvested according to defined methods, and meet certain standards.

To make a long story short, the Super Tuscan fails to meet the DOC standard. Why? Well, most Tuscans, like Chianti, are comprised primarily of Sangiovese grapes along with other non-DOC varietals. The Super Tuscan breaks that mold by incorporating other varietals such as Cabernet Sauvignon.

That is the case here. Monte Antico's 2006 Toscana is a blend of Sangiovese (85%), Merlot (5%), and Cabernet (10%), and can be yours for the low price of $10.99.

This wine is a nice, very clear cranberry red - far more translucent than I am accustomed to drinking. The nose is ample and gives up bits of pine, clove, pepper and pungent herbs.

In the mouth, though scant in body, this wine's bright acidity is a little overpowering. It really just sucks the moisture right out of your cheeks. Perhaps resultantly, the taste is hardly as complex as the nose. Regardless, a fair amount of red fruit flavor manages to fight its way through the tannic fray. The finish wraps up with some herb. But it doesn't go off without a hitch... there is a somewhat tinny aftertaste that was just a little off-putting to my palate. Then again, we all have different tastes!

If I had to pair this wine I'd put it with a pizza pie.

CONCLUSION:

Wine Spectator put this value play at 90 points, but I'm just not feeling it. I'll give it a 3 of 5 on my scale, which equates roughly to a low-to-mid 80's score on the 100 point scale. A solid B minus. It might have earned a 3.5 (87 or 88 points) if it wasn't for the tin.

3 of 5 glasses

Wine Review: Gabbiano 2008 Chianti

Gabba Gabba Hey Gabba Gabba Hey... Gabbiano?

"So uh... Gabbiano... you're a... uh... a Chianti?"

"Yes."

So wait... where's your squat little round bottle in the straw basket?"

"Really? What century is this... neanderthal! Look... I don't have to wear a straw basket just because your oppressive regime says I do... I burned my straw last night. In fact, me and the other bottles all had a good straw-burning party. What do you think about that... oppressor!"

"Uh.... yeah... so sorry about all that straw. You don't have to wear straw to be beautiful. It's okay baby. You don't even have to be in a squat little round bottle... I know what you have on the inside... I know... Gabba gabba I accept you"

Okay that was weird.

SO Gabbiano - in the Chianti region of Italy has one of the most widely available budget reds out there. You can find the 2008 Chianti by this house in most super-markets. I think I picked it up at Wal Mart... classy.

Chianti is - you guessed it - a blend and it is named after the area in northern Italy where the raw materials (grapes) are grown. Speaking of grapes, Baron Bettino Ricasoli (some Italian dude about 150 years ago) created the original Chianti recipe of 70% Sangiovese, 15% Canaiolo and 15% Malvasia bianca grapes.

Back to Gabbiano - At 9 bucks, it's a Chianti well within the rest of our price range and is composed of around 90% Sangiovese grapes with (at least in the '07 vintage) the addition of Canaiolo and Colorino grapes.

The nose reeks heavily of alcohol – surprisingly strong for its 12.5% alcohol content. Actually it smells a bit isopropyl – not great whiffage. There is also some heavy oak, and walnut going on. As it opens up dark fruit scents do come through.

The sip is very dry, but light - not at all full bodied. Nothing too exciting really happens on the palate. There is a nice tart, crisp quality and a pucker effect - like a cherry jolly rancher just sidled up to your tongue. Not a bad pizza wine.

CONCLUSION:

Not bad - not great.

3 of 5 glasses

Wine Review: Casillero del Diablo Cabernet Sauvignon

You know the Devil is like Satan... from Hell. Or maybe he's just an impish sprite in a red leotard that likes to frolic in Chilean cellars and imbibe the fruit of the vine. If you were to ask the opinion of Don Melchor, he would probably go with the latter.

Last night I went down to the Devil's cellar and picked up a bottle of 2008 Casillero del Diablo Cabernet Sauvignon. This dry red is produced in the Central Valley region of Chile by Concha y Toro and can be had for $9.99.

If I'm not mistaken, Concha y Toro translates to Shell and Bull - so what's all this about the Devil? I did a little investigating and snagged this tid-bit from the vintner's website: "Over a century has passed since Don Melchor created a legend. When he discovered his finest Concha y Toro wines were missing he spread the word that the devil lived in his cellar. From that day, the wine has been known as Casillero del Diablo, the devil's cellar."

Enough with the legend - let's talk about the wine! This bargain red has a deep ruby hue. The first whiff I got was the cassis or black currant. The cassis scent is predominant but after some work other aromatic notes are detectable. There is a hint of blackberry and a woody, smoky vanilla lingers from the eight-months this young wine spent in American Oak barrels.

The flavor is a cassis-fest as well. A quick note: Cassis = currant. Apparently we Americans prefer the French "cassis." Perhaps this is owed to our familiarity with creme de cassis, the liquor responsible for the fruitiness of a Tequilla Sunrise. I digress. The tartness of the cassis is overpowering. Yet subtle notes of dark roasted coffee and cherry come through and dance lightly on the taste-buds. After further tasting something takes me back to the waking hours of a backpacking trip through North Carolina - possibly the not-quite ripe blackberries I had for breakfast and the lingering odor of the still-smoldering camp fire.

The finish is short - lingering for three seconds or so and disappearing with a breath of alcohol. This wine has an astringent quality owed to the tannins, making it a little more bitter than I prefer. It would pair well with any red meat or cheese. Something about this wine makes me crave a good crispy salty peppery pork chop - something fatty to cut the acid. Alas, I settled for a little dark chocolate as I was fresh out of pig.

CONCLUSION

Overall I am not wowed by this Chilean Cab. The cassis comes on far too strong and prevents the drinker from enjoying the hints of coffee.

Melchor concocted the devil legend to keep people out of his cellar. I'll heed his warning next time.

3 out of 5 glasses