Celebrate #CabernetDay!

Well, hard to believe it's been a year, but it's September 1st and #CabernetDay once again!  So tonight I am celebrating (!) with a bottle of 2007 Wine Spots Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, after all, I heard somewhere that Napa Valley makes good cabs, and 2007 was a pretty good year! =)

I can't remember where I got this bottle, but in looking it up on the internet, it apparently was a pretty pricey bottle, though I can't imagine I paid that much for it.  Wine Spots is interesting in that rather than a single vineyard, they go to various spots known for great wines and work with local producers to come up with a wine that vividly illustrates what makes that spot great for wine, hence the Wine Spot!  Well lucky for me, this particular bottle seeks to show the best of Napa Valley in a bottle of Cab, perfect for #CabernetDay!This wine was made with a blend of grape sourced from acclaimed sub-regions including Rutherford and Oakville, so it should be pretty good right?

Well, I won't leave you in suspense any longer, it is indeed VERY good!  The nose is an interesting combination of lush fruit, leather and a hint of a light floral scent.  The mouthfeel is big and luscious, with lots of velvety tannins for a long finish.  The taste bursts forth with blackberry and cherry, with a woodsy sort of background, and despite the early fruit, the wine is actually quite dry, really showing the greatness of Napa Valley Cabs.  This wine would be a perfect match for grilled steak, or some rich barbecue as we approach the last holiday of summer, though tonight I'm enjoying it with some spicy chorizo and bean tacos!  I can't remember how much this one cost, but ignoring price I would rate this one a solid 8.5, a great Napa Cap to enjoy anytime!

A new cellar!

Ok, so this post is only tangentially about wine, but last Friday night I finally broke down and bought a wine cooler (and no, not the classic Bartles & Jaymes fuzzy navel)!  A friend at work told me that the local Lowe's was having a clearance on a Frigidaire 34-bottle wine cooler for only $171, so I had to do it!  I got there after work on Friday and of course saw the last one with my friend's name taped to it, but there was still the display model, so a little negotiation and an additional 15% discount later and I drove home with my new fridge!  Here is the standard image, since I haven't had time to take a picture of mine yet:

It's a nice little unit, but there are certainly some quirks to be aware of, particularly if like me, this is your first wine cooler.  This particular model did not have the digital temperature settings (I highly recommend them as I think it would make operating a lot easier!) so I had to experiment with the settings which went from "Min" to "Max."  So I had to experiement with a bottle of wine I wasn't afraid to ruin, well maybe a few basic bottles of red just to see how they did.

I started with the "recommended" setting, but that ended up chilling the wine way too much, a cabernet served at 50 degrees is just plain wrong!  So I adjusted all weekend until I got to the minumum setting, and that turned out to be the right one, cooling to a nice 62-64 degrees.  Once the temperature was settled, I stocked the cooler with some of my older wines, where temperature control is much more important, and surprisingly enough, I managed to fill up the fridge!  Of course this freed up a lot more space in my usual cellar, the hall closet, so now I have no worries about stroring wine for the moment.  But you know how that is, building it and they will come, so I expect in a month or two the closet will again be at capacity!

In the meantime, a small fridge is an inexpensive method to long-term, safe storage of wines with consistent temperature and humidity, if like me, you don't live in a place with a cool, dark basement for wine storage.

2006 D-Cubed Primitivo

What a beautiful evening!  The sun is shining, it's perhaps 75 degrees, and an ideal evening for a glass of wine on the patio before dinner.  Tonight I'm enjoying a wine that accentuates the feel of a late summer evening, the 2006 D-Cubed Primitivo from Napa Valley.

For those of you unfamiliar with Primitivo, it's a close cousin to Zinfandel (and what great Zins come from Sonoma!), and in fact DNA testing has shown that it's nearly identical to Zinfandel grapes.  The Primitivo is commonly grown in the "heel" of Italy, producing wonderful wines with bountiful fruit, and a somewhat higher alcohol content.  Now, in the mid-19th century, the Primitivo grape was brought to California where it took on the "Zinfandel" name, and today produces a great red wine, along with it blush sister, the White Zinfandel which is quite popular in the United States, though I couldn't begin to tell you why!

The D-Cubed Primitivo has a nose full of fruit, and a quick whiff will surely tell you this is a more fruit-forward red than many of the dry Bordeaux style blends.  You can smell hints of blackberry and cherry, which a bit of woody earthiness.  The taste is wonderfully loaded with fruit, so much that it almost makes you think it's sweeter than it is.  As it hits the back of your mouth, you get a great hint of spice and cedar before a clean smooth finish.  This wine would be great as a later dinner pairing with a cheese plate, particularly with some stronger cheeses (tonight I enjoyed it with a little aged swiss).  I got this one as a Wines Till Sold Out Cheapskate Wednesday selection, and I really enjoyed it.  I would rate this one a solid 8.5, particularly given the wonderful price of only $13!