Lady Souverain

Chateau Souverain 2000 Cabernet Sauvignon (Alexander Valley) – Club-fisted and ham-handed cabernet of acceptable quality. It hasn’t done anything I’d identify as “age,” but has instead just gotten older; drying out, turning from dark berry to dried herb and green tobacco, and dusting everything with slightly stale black pepper. That may be harsher than the wine as it exists deserves, because it’s a fair expression of grape and, to the extent that such can be discerned, a vague sort of place, but unless I’m very wrong (which would mean the wine’s just in a closed stage, though its general fulsomeness suggests otherwise), I don’t think it’s going anywhere more interesting anytime soon. Or not soon, either. (9/11)

Carcignogenic waterfowl

Smoking Loon 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon (California) – Yes, really. It was a gift, of course, forgotten in the cellar until now. And though it had to be opened for, um “research,” I expected not industrial dreck, but a dead wine due to closure failure. Well, it’s not dead. Far from it, actually. As for the taste…you know that fake blueberry pie thingy that can sit on convenience store shelves, at room temperature, for damn nigh ever? The nasty, sticky syntheticism of it, akin to no actual product of nature? It tastes like that. Exactly like that. (5/11)

Grassy

Cedar Knoll 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley) – Weedy and underripe, with nasty green tannin suffused with stale cigarette ash, then treated to a burnt licorice overoaking and nasty, rancid buttering. I can’t get this out of my mouth fast enough. (9/10)

Taking leave of

Sainsbury’s Cabernet Sauvignon (Valle Central) – Why the language switch for the appellation between this and the sauvignon blanc, I don’t know. I’m sure some focus group, somewhere, knows the answer. Sweet green pepper, synthetic and sticky fruit. I rarely think the cabernets are ideal candidates for cellar-dwelling price points, and sauvignon even less so than franc. This wine demonstrates why. An underripe festival of pyrazines would be one thing, but to add the sticky, plastic sugar element just to make things “more palatable” is triply wretched. No bargain at any cost. (3/11)

Rozier Greer

Rozier “Les Traverses de Fontanès” 2004 Vin de Pays d’Oc Cabernet Sauvignon (Languedoc) – One doesn’t often think of cabernet sauvignon as a light wine, but that’s exactly what this one is. I could identify it as a diluted form of what Bordeaux used to taste like, but not only wouldn’t that be quite right (the fruit has a more reddish tinge than would be typical in Bordeaux, though more standard cassis and blackberry are evident as well), the use of the word “dilute” would be misleading. This isn’t thinned out, it’s just light. Deft. Airy. Structurally, it’s cabernet-like, retaining the (typical and, to me, necessary) leafy edge to its tannin, but there’s a lot of space and luminosity within the wine. Frankly, I love it. It’s like a really good Beaujolais Nouveau (yes, such exists) done with cabernet sauvignon rather than gamay. (1/11)

Pick the flowers, but leave the Petalon

Petalon 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon (Margaret River) – Plain. An assemblage of dark berries, restrained and coated with the thinnest of structures. Wan. (3/05)

Are you there, cab? It's me...

Voyager Estate 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon (Margaret River) – Unfortunately, this is my last bottle of what has been a wine consistently outperforming both its price and its expectations. It’s not “Australian wine” for all the dire connotations that has to American consumers, it’s cabernet sauvignon, and it’s Margaret River, and it’s good. Dark blackberry fruit, narrowed and focused, with the herbal bite of rosemary and thyme, black peppery structure, and the requisite balancing act between firmness of character and the complexity of age. It’s good, it’s middle-aged at best, it’s aging as any fan of non-internationlized cabernet would wish, and it was under $20 at release. You won’t find wines like that coming from California. (2/10)

Walk on water

Rozier “les traverses de fontanès” 2006 Vin de Pays d’Oc (Languedoc) – Cabernet sauvignon. And it tastes like it, too. What’s interesting is how it shows that character, because while I usually expect cabernet from these southerly regions to be ponderous and under-structured, this is anything but. It’s not underripe, but it brings out the tobacco leaf, cedar, and (ripe) bell pepper qualities of the grape, leaving plenty of acidity and a reasonably crunchy plane of tannin. It’s light, overall, and if any cabernet not all the way over into fruit-bomb territory can be said to be “fun,” this is one. (8/09)

The mighty Tor

Kenward “Tor” 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon Mast-Cimarrossa (Napa Valley) – Corked. So massively-fruited that it almost overcomes it. But still corked. (10/09)

Klippen the hedge

Blaauwklippen 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon (Stellenbosch) – Dried-out black fruit with structure. Boring. (11/08)

Cullen the herd

Cullen 1995 Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot (Margaret River) – Dense and a little roasted, with razor-like tannin and a certain alcoholic weight (though there’s only a bit of heat). Coconut, blackberry, and…not much else; the center is hollow, there’s volatile acidity hanging about (and sure to get stronger), and the wine finishes with both feet and a large portion of its torso in the grave, though it’s still swinging its fists as it descends. A bit brutal to drink, honestly, and it appears to have suffered the fate so often predicted for modern-style wines (though what it was actually like young, I have no idea). Some at the table opine that it’s actually having a mid-life crisis, and while I concede their greater experience with the wine, I don’t see it based on what’s on display. (3/05)

Vodka Gimblett

Trinity Hill 2006 Merlot/Cabernet Sauvignon Gimblett Gravels “The Gimblett” (Hawke’s Bay) – Chunky peanut butter, which melds with a gravelly texture. Incredibly rough. Uninteresting despite the terroir signature. (3/09)

Lay your Hans on me

Hans 2001 Merlot/Cabernet Sauvignon “Spirit of Marlborough” (Marlborough) – Ripe fruit (mostly black), fresh tobacco, smoke, and black dirt. A bit short and unsubstantial, but OK. (3/09)

Bin there, done that

Villa Maria “Private Bin” 2007 Merlot/Cabernet Sauvignon (Hawke’s Bay) – Herbed blueberry and blackberry. Simple, clean, and good according to the nose. But the palate? Baked. And the finish is horrid. (3/09)

General

Beauregard 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon (High Valley) – A little cross-promotion from the winery up the driveway from Bonny Doon’s tasting room. I can’t say I’m a fan. Coconut, dill, and stale chocolate are not aromas I crave. A juicy texture, sour acidity, and overly-rounded tannins aren’t the droids structure I’m looking for, either. And the finish is weird. Don’t just avoid, run away. (9/08)

Montelena Olin

Montelena 1987 Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley) – 14.01% alcohol. Those were the days, eh? Though I can’t help see the precision of the number as a sort of jibe. Anyway…the wine’s highly structured, but everything else is quite advanced (especially the color), and I think drinking is in order over the next few years. Tobacco, gravel, and cassis liqueur are present, but the dominant impression is a dusty austerity. Restrained, but not I think by middle age, but by its basic nature. A good, not great, Montelena. (2/09)

Gin

Martini 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley) – Artificial blackberry syrup, in taste and texture. The damage done to this name by the new owners is unforgivable. (2/09)

Crimson & Cluver

Paul Cluver 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon (Elgin) – The varietal signature is correct, with a fine mix of dark fruit and the herbed tobacco notes so essential to cabernet’s individual character (despite what much modern winemaking would suggest), and winemaking residue is moderate for a New World wine – coffee dust, some present but unobtrusive oak – but the overall package is sludgy. In some fashion, this was pushed beyond where it was willing or able to go, and the result is tiring. (1/09)

Afterlude

Leeuwin “Prelude Vineyards” 2000 Cabernet/Merlot (Margaret River) – Red pepper, dark cherry, and cassis, with a dash of eucalyptus. Good weight and balance. Admittedly a little green (not altogether unpleasantly so, but it’s right on the edge), and already showing some early signs of development. Somewhere between OK and good. Probably not much of an ager, though. (3/05)

It's a fair Kanonkop

Kanonkop 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon (Stellenbosch) – By reputation and critical response, this is the worst version of this wine that Kanonkop’s made in many years. And yes, it’s a little scratchy and advanced. But I find the minor greenness, touched with a dusting of white pepper, appealing in contrast to modern cabernet’s distorted lushness (not that lushness is something from which this wine regularly suffers), and in fact the wine’s balance is better than its reputation would indicate. I wouldn’t hold it any longer, though, and I think food – something with fat – is essential. (12/08)