Happy Saturday! It's been a busy day and since I'm entertaining tonight, I'll have to make this quick! Oh, who am I kidding, I can't do anything quick. So tonight I've invite some friends over for dinner and we are having some filet mignon (some will have prime beef while those of us more adventurous will have bison!) and what goes better with filet then a nice Napa Valley Cabernet. Tonight I've opened a bottle of 2015 Michel-Schlumberger Artist Series Cabernet Sauvignon. This is the fourth vintage I've enjoyed of this wine, though not in order, as I've sampled the 2013, 2014 and 2016 previously. I bought this wine from Wines Till Sold Out, and it is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (81%), Merlot (9%), Syrah (4%), Zinfandel (4%) and Cabernet Franc (2%) from Napa Valley Vineyards in Yountville (69%), Southeast Napa (11%), St. Helena (10%), Rutherford (5%), Stags Leap (3%), Oakville (1%), and Howell Mountain (1%). So let's see how this wine is tasting!
The wine is deep, brooding affair, with inky black at the center and bright ruby along the edges. The nose is a rush of ripe jammy fruit up front, with blackberry, cherry and prune amid earthy aromas of oak and smoke. The taste much more subdued than the nose suggests with a mellow blackberry and plum up front that transitions to some notes of tobacco and a hint of lavender midpalate. The chalky tannins make for a rich mouthfeel and provide a nice base for a long, dry finish that lingers on the palate.
Overall, I would rate this wine a solid 9, as it's a remarkably pleasant, old world style Cabernet from the new world of Napa Valley. This wine would of course pair well with steak, but it would also be ideal with lamb, pork tenderloin or earthy wild mushroom risotto. As I mentioned earlier, tonight I am enjoying this wine with a rare grilled bison filet mignon along with some garlic mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus. Cheers!
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