75 Wine Cellars, 2004 Amber Knolls Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon.
This wine was recommended to me by a local wine steward who said it the next big cab. The 75 Wine Co. was started by the Beckstoffer family who moved to the Napa Valley in 1975. They have been growers for many high end wineries in Napa and Sonoma since there arrival to the area and this is their first offering under their own label and it is from their Amber Knolls Vineyard in Lake County, just North and East of Napa.
Color: It is on the light side, sharp edges showing its youth.
Nose: Lots of young red fruits, strawberries, cherries, and a hint of vanilla. After about a half hour the fruit dries up and leaves you with more vanilla and some toasty oak nuances.
Palate: Pretty light body, finishes quickly but leaves some tannin on the back. I get a lot of the vanilla and smokey characters but not much more. I am a bit disappointed.
Overall: The wine steward said that he loved this wine and it's the next big thing. It IS a tasty wine but I paid $20 for it. I feel like I can find some much better values for less. If the wine was $10 I would give it a B, but I am going to have to give it a B-.
Labels: Cabernet Sauvignon
posted by David Ogilvie @ 5:54 PM
12 comments
12 Comments:
Are you kidding me?? If you are going to rate this wine a B- then you either have a crappy palate or you have an axe to grind, my friend. get off the pipe. Show me ANYTHING at or below 20 bucks that even comes close and I'll buy you lunch. get a clue, friend. This wine is great. Clearly the distributor you work for is not handling 75 and you are trying to bad mouth it. get a life and stop giving people bad information. The wine scored 90 points in The Advocate for God's sake! Figure it out or quit blogging.
Hey "Anonymous", Some pretty harsh words there. We all have our own palate's. Sorry if my palate doesn't agree with Mr. Parkers or yours. I am not asking anyone to believe every drop of info I put on this page, but you obviously believe everything parker says. So yes, he has an amazing palate and I wish I could taste wines the way he does but I stand by my rating of a B- for this wine. I have had plenty of Cabs under $20 that are far superior to this one. Try Marques De Casa Concha from Chile, or Mitolo Jester from Australia. There are plenty of them out there. I am sorry if you don't agree with my palate, that's fine by me. I stand by my conclusion of this wine. And Please, respond and let me know what you liked about this wine, besides just saying "This wine is great, the Advocate gave it 90 points".
-d.o.
p.s. email me if you want to try a wine over that lunch you are going to owe me. I'll buy the wine =)
p.ss. could we have tasted different vintages?
Anonymous has a good point. Are you being objective or are you losing sales to this wine? I am involved with many tasting groups and the 75 Cabernet has showed great to all groups, especially against other cabernets in this price range. Also, saying the fruit dries up in a half hour is absurd. The wine only improves and is drinks great on day 2 and even on the 3rd day. Why not try the wine in a blind tasting with a group and see how it fares.
Well, I will slip it into my next cab tasting and see how it fairs, but to say that I am "dogging" this wine because I don't sell it is obsured. I just say it how I taste it. I tasted this wine with one of my other wine knowledgable friends and he also came to the same conclusion. It is a light bodied cab. I stand by that. When I first poured it in the glass I noticed it was light, when I tasted it, it was light. It isn't a bad wine, there is a lot of fruit and oak. I just don't know if it is worth the $20 I paid for it. I will try it again in the future when we have our next cab tasting. If it warrants another posting I will write another one.
Thanks for the comments
-d.o.
Thanks for the reply. I still think that you are tasting the wrong bottle of wine. I had another bottle last night with quite a few people and everyone piucked it #1 or #2 in a dinner that had several "cult" cabernets involved costing as much as 5 times as much. The two wines you mention are really not even Cabernet! They are blends! As far as they wine being light, I think you must be tating another wine! What are you comparing it to, a shiraz? Too much oak?? Huh? Why dont you qualify your findings and talk in terms that REAL winemaking people use like T/A or PH. I would love to know just what kind of experience you have in the business. Just what have you done to qualify yoursself to publish reviews? I suppose everyone has the right but you are way off base on this one.
Well Anonymous,
Again, thanks for you continued interest in this debate and my blog. I have designed this blog to showcase wines that I drink and let people know what I think of them. I believe that talking about a wines pH or TA in a wine blog is pointless. Most people don't understand how those two things influence a wine and would rather read my subjective views on the wines color, nose, and palate. Now, saying that the Cabernets that I mentioned in the previous comment,(Marques De Casa Concha from Chile, and Mitolo Jester from Australia)are not Cabs, but blends, tells me that you don't understand some of the basics about winemaking so let me fill you in. Most Cabernet out there in the market have at least some Merlot blended in with them. It's all based on percentages. Wines that are labeled Cabernet Sauvignon in the United States are required to have at least 75% Cab in them. This gives the winemaker some room to blend in Merlot and other varieties to smooth out the harsh Cab tannins as well as fill a void on the palate that a lot of Cabs give. In my winemaking experience, Merlot and Petite Verdot can really beef up a wines mid-palate. Now I know you can probably cite some Cabs that are really nice and are 100% varietal but I think it is safe to say that the best wines out there are blends. This was learned centuries ago by the French and this is why they produce some of the best wines in the world. But the great winemakers of Napa have learned this as well. The Famous 1976 Paris tasting was won by the 1973 Stags Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon. It Said Cab on the label but the now famous winemaker, Warren Winiarski, knew something and added 10% Merlot in order to "smooth out the Wild Cabernet". The 75 Wine Co. Cab is vineyard designated so at least 95% of the wine comes from the Amber Knolls Vineyard which could be all Cabernet or could also have a block of Merlot thrown in too.
I have not found any information that leads me to think that this is a 100% varietal Cab.
So anonymous, is that enough winemaking talk for you? Are you a winemaker yourself? Do you have a blog where you talk about TA and pH in wines? If so I would be interested in reading what you have to say about the 75 cab since no where on their website is there that information. Can you taste a wine and come up with a pH or TA? If so I would be very impressed. Since you accuse me of not having any qualifications to talk about wine, what are yours? Not that it really matters. Hope to hear from you again.
-d.o.
Hey Anonymous, if you would like to comment further please email me at daveogil@hotmail.com
-d.o.
As a wine buyer for a prominent New York restaurant, I would agree with Dave's assessment, but for different reasons. This wine has oodles of alcohol and new oak, which are not necessarily synonomous with quality. The finish is medium to short, the wine lacks complexity, and ends with a hot streak. It's no wonder that the wine does well in comparitive tastings with other Cabernets. It would be difficult to taste much else, once you've sampled this wine. This is not to say that many people won't find this New World style pleasing. On the other hand, the acknowledged great wines of the world as proven by history (Burgundy, Bordeaux) and collectors don't follow this model.
To add to my comment above -- twenty minutes later the wine in the glass has lost its allure and a bitter finish, due to high alcohol, becomes evident. Again, however, I will say that the New World drinker who is not going to consume this wine with food, will find the wine -- a party in a glass!
This wine lives up to the hype for sure! I'm a novel at wine, but I know what tastes good to me. I was impressed with how sweet it was... almost a Zin like quality with the smooth lingering of a good Chardonnay. Great wine. I loved it.
I work am a wine buyer at a boutique wine shop in Dallas TX and have completed Level 2 Sommelier with the I.S.G. The wine "is what it is" a great "Cab." for the price.
It retails for $22 here and is with a BIG distributor pushing the juice. Wine is subjective and fun! Love, Live and Drink great juice!!!!
Good job David. I find this bottle to be fairly well balanced from an amateur's (me) point of view. However, it is also not very 3 dimenional. It lacks true character, but it's balance makes it rather pleasing.
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