Washington Cabernet Sauvignon
Welcome to Home Tasting Session #3. These periodic sessions are intended to bring us back to the roots of the Prentiss Street Wine Club - group tastings - by highlighting widely available wines we can enjoy on our own. If you wish to participate - simply purchase the featured wine (usually under $20) for this session and taste (and drink). You are encouraged to leave a comment with your tasting notes, comments, or drunken rants.
Chateau Ste. Michelle
Cabernet Sauvignon
Columbia Valley (WA)
2005
This home session continues with another American Cabernet, this time from Washington. Like the Mondavi Cab from Home Tasting Session #2, I've not had the Chateau Ste. Michelle, or a Cabernet from Washington. Hopefully, many of you have yet to try it as well!
Chateau Ste. Michelle is one of Washington's largest and well known wine producers (it just got bigger with the acquisition of Napa's Stag Leap Winery). According to Lisa S. Hall (from The Oxford Companion to Wine), the parent company (of the same name) "controls a third of all vineyard land in Washington." The 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon Columbia Valley is pitched as the winemaker's "everyday Cab with plenty of complexity and structure" (winery's website). Will it be too everyday or commercial?
Not having met this wine, here's what we should expect (i.e. face-value expectation):
Color: Dark red, with some bright purples
Nose (aroma): Intense, some oak, jammy
Palate (taste and mouthfeel): a lighter-heavy weight, short finish, soft tannins. Slight oak. Flavors of coffee and dark berries.
Aged 16 months in 16% new American and French oak probably means the oak flavor is in check, but very present. The blend here is 76% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Merlot, 9% Syrah, 3% Cabernet Franc, and 1% Malbec which leads me to believe it will be pretty soft and the tannins will be muted. Additionally, 75% Cab is the minimum needed to label this Cabernet Sauvignon, therefore the Cab grapes in this blend were either middling or need a push towards the complexity department.
Chateau Ste. Michelle mentioned that the weather was really up and down in 2005 - so the grapes were a bit picky. Yet Paul Gregult (in The Wine Report 2009) said Washington reds from 2005 are "luscious, rich and textual." Whether this translates to a value-driven Cabernet is to be seen. So, will it be awkward and gangly, or balanced and affirming?
Possible food pairings: meats, duck, dark chocolate, rosemary, thyme, cloves, nutmeg
1 comments:
Interesting little one here! The nose was powerful - hitting me with cream, vanilla, strawberries, all wrapped in some bark. The color here is the standout. It's just plain pretty! After that it goes a bit pear-shaped, with some spice and a firm fruit core. I love the mouth filling tannins here, but it's too lightweight and the finish is non-existent. Decent with food - but the lack of finish is the bother here.
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