Some tasty wine

I won’t be making this a long, unnecessarily complicated post about all sorts of details about a wine you guys may have never had and won’t care to read a long description about. I just want to say that H3, a Columbia Crest Cab from Horse Heaven Hills, 2007 is a absolute steal at $13 and paired beautifully with a 4 pound steak Zak cooked up tonight (that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but just barely so). It also paired great with pajamas, a couch and some Castle on Hulu.

Cheers,

the Kilsons

Another Wine Review (This time, Cab)

Hey there-

You guessed it, we tasted more wine today. After one of the longest weekends in recent memory, it was time to fire up a steak and drink. If you know one thing about the taller half of this relationship, it’s that he loves red meat. If you know two things about him, it’s that he loves red meat, and can definitely hook a steak up.

All of that being said, we went and grabbed a giant rib-eye to grill, and a California Cab to pair with. After all was said and done, we have this to report to you: The Cab and the steak went great together (Like Lamb and Tunafish) what? No good? Ok, how about like this couple? Yeah, like that.

So here’s the deal. While at the store, we grabbed said Cab. It seemed like a really good idea, because we like buying wine that doesn’t break the bank. Since we drink wine every single day, we know you understand.

Wine: Main Street Winery

Varietal: Cabernet Sauvignon

Vintage: 2006

Alcohol: 13.5% ABV

Our Score: 80 points

Price: $12

This bottle cost us $12 and as we said, paired wonderfully with the steak, but left a little to be desired when consumed alone. Correction…a lot to be desired. After a pretty promising nose that was full of leather, black pepper, cherry, cedar, tobacco, wet gravel, and a little limestone, it died a painful death as it hit the palate. Its mouthfeel was kind of blah, and threw a dash of pepper, some unripe cherry (thanks) and gun metal. No offense but we wish we were spitting, not drinking this wine.

To review, it tasted like we were eating a gun barrel (as fun as that sounds…) and wanting to sneeze from ingesting too much pepper, while dealing with the devastation of buying (or picking) fruit before it is ready. Can you taste the excitement?!?

In closing, we gave this wine 80 points, and will recommend it to our neighborhood cats, and possibly Sarah Palin. Cheers!

Zak & Olena

Becker Vineyards Texas Iconoclast Cabernet Sauvignon-2007

Upon request, we have decided to make a conscious effort to taste more Texas wine. You might not know that Texas is the #5 wine producer in the United States. However, the reason for that very well may be because 90% the wine produced here, gets consumed here. Today, we contributed to this statistic by drinking a Texas wine in Texas.

Our first reaction to this Cabernet was that of a surprise. Despite having some experience with Texan wine, we weren’t expecting such outstanding quality. This Cabernet is round, with a good balance of tannins. It drinks a little towards off-dry, and exhibits dark fruit (cherries and raspberries) leading into a smooth finish.

On a recent trip to Austin, we passed through Fredericksburg, which is a quaint little German influenced town in the heart of Texas wine country. Due to time restrictions, we didn’t have the opportunity to visit any wineries or vineyards. With this Becker Vineyards bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon as its representative, we will soon be making a trip to see what more Texas has to offer.

We rate this wine 1,300 points (because everything is bigger in Texas!)

No seriously, we awarded it 88 points, and recommend not only picking one up ($10) but also making a trip to Fredericksburg, TX and the Becker Vineyards. Cheers!

Carmen Cabernet Sauvignon-Chile 2007

Last night was date night for us. We waited until around 7pm to head out for a bite to eat. Our plan was to go to Hello Pizza to visit with our good friend Larry, and drink a bottle of Vino Nobile Riserva 2004 from Vecchia Cantina, but our plans kind of fell apart upon arriving at a closed restaurant. There has to be another place that is open on a Sunday night that allows one to BYOB in El Paso, right? If anyone knows of one, please let us know.

Ultimately we ended up at Ardovino’s on Cincinatti. After some light-hearted debate, we ordered a Margherita Pizza, and a bottle of Carmen Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile. A fun fact about Ardovino’s is that it doubles as a retail location. One can purchase a bottle for $5 above retail, and drink it with dinner. This is a pretty rare deal for a restaurant, so we took the advantage of the offer. Why not?

Our Tasting Notes:

Wine- Carmen Cabernet Sauvignon
Region-Maipo Valley, Chile
Vintage-2007
Varietal(s)-93% Cabernet Sauvignon
7% Cabernet Franc
Cost-$17 (restaurant)

Carmen offers a bright ruby color with red and black fruits such as cherries, raspberries, blackberries, and a hit of black currant on the nose. It mostly tastes like a Margherita pizza when paired with one. This can be blamed on it’s light, fruit forward mouth feel, and absence of tannins. his was by no means an accurate representation of what Cabernets have come to be known as. This wine drank like a Beaujolais or Dolcetto. It was very light, and had very little tannic structure to back it up. As we said, the pizza overpowered it. Overall, it was a little disappointing, but at the same time, not entirely offensive. It drank easily, and pleasantly. If presented with another bottle of Carmen Cab, we would drink it, but maybe with a walnut salad or Duck Confit. (Something light) We gave this wine 86 points, and walked away feeling like we just consumed a bottle of wine. Nothing to write home about.

It’s always fun to experiment, but given the way the Alto Maipo (as it’s known) thrives off of the success of Cabernet, we were surprised to say the least. We will have to play around a bit more with Maipo Cabs to make up for this one, and it’s lack of complexity.

It is now our short-term mission to find at least one (great) Cab from Maipo Valley, Chile before our next class on November 14th; where as you all know, we will be discussing Chile and Argentina. Until then…Cheers!

Zak & Olena