Tasting Cabs

In March, my wine tasting group met to taste and, hopefully, enjoy Cabernet Sauvignon. This was the fourth time we’ve met as a group and we have settled nicely into a routine that allows us both to “officially” taste and discuss the wines and then, after the tasting, enjoy them with food. Members of the group are, Emily, David, Kathy, Chuck and myself. Ira attends to provide comic relief, pet kitties (we all have cats), and eat. We take turns meeting at each other’s homes and plan our menus around the wine. Right now, we are making our way through some of the more standard varietals. Each couple picks a wine from a different area and we try to cover both new and old world wines with price limit of $20-$25 or less. Our tasting process is fairly standard. We pour one wine, sniff, swirl, taste, and then write down our impressions: color (when we think about it) aroma, flavor, tannins, body, acidity, finish, how the wine develops over time, etc. We pay attention to QPR (quality price ratio), whether the wine is a pure varietal or blend, and alcohol content as well. Then, once the tasting is over, we see how each holds up to food. Sometimes we have three bottles and sometimes there’s been as many as six, but always the tastings (and the eating) have been educational and a whole lot of fun.

Our recent Cab tasting was no different. The wines we tasted were:

Three Rivers Cabernet Sauvignon 2005, Columbia Valley, Washington, 14.8% alcohol — $18
Château Greysac Médoc 2004, France – Bordeaux 13% alcohol — $22
Two Angels Cabernet Sauvignon 2007, Maycamus Mountain, Sonoma County, California 14.6% alcohol

We let the wines decant for about a half an hour then began the tasting. The hands-down favorite was the Médoc. This had everything going for it: Aromatic, luscious fruit, excellent body and finish. The Three Rivers Cab was also very nice but it lacked the finesse of the Médoc. Two Angels was a complete disappointment. Maybe because I brought it to the tasting, I was particularly harsh about it. To me, it lacked the body and polish that I would expect from a California Cab in this price range. Frankly, I would have been disappointed in this wine if it had an $8 price tag.

Dinner was a super delicious, stew with short ribs, thanks to Emily and David and a mushroom tart, provided by Kathy. (I brought a roasted pecan blue cheese dip that we had during the tasting, which served nicely as a “cheese.”). Perfectly wonderful on its own, the Médoc sang with the food. I think we could have easily downed two more bottles of it had that been an option. Three Rivers was a very good pairing with the stew and the tart. But having totally busted on the Two Angels, I was rather surprised how the stew in particular brought out rich dark fruit and a chocolaty sweetness it totally lacked on its own. Then came the stunner of the evening. We had all heard that dark chocolate and Cabs went well together so we gave that a try. It was a stunning disaster. The chocolate was excellent but it did not pair well with the wines—any of them! It was so awful that it was funny.

The thing I love most about these wine tastings is that even when a wine doesn’t quite make it or is a disaster with the food, it’s still an adventure. Okay, so I’d prefer it if all the wines we tasted were marvelous, but you get my drift. Next month, our varietal is Pinot Noir. We haven’t decided on a menu yet but my mouth is already watering in anticipation.