13 BV Beaulieu Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon [Rutherford] Consumed over 4 days. 14.5% abv. Big, dark purple wine. This is a widely available, huge production, ‘supermarket’ wine e.g. I picked this up at Costco outpost #471. Normally those attributes are pejoratives on this board, but this is a very solid wine in its style. The first two days, it showed lots of oak and tannins, as would be expected. Generally I don’t drink reds this young, but I wanted to taste it for myself right now, and see if this could be a good Cab QPR* that merits further purchase. And I made a point to drink it slowly to think about the development. On the nose I get some licorice, which turns into boysenberry flavors on the palate. The finish is 30 seconds in length. The first two days the tannins are very strong, and even though there is lots of fruit, well the tannins are big, and because I drink so little young cabernet, I’m not sure how they will evolve. By day 3 they start balancing out, and the wine is very pleasurable on day 4, more harmonious, even though still grapey. My SO doesn’t care for it, and sticks to a 2009 cru bourgoise we’ve opened to compare it to, but I can see the merits of both. I think this will keep well, and in a decade, my suspicion is that the better half might be inclined to enjoy it. These are times where I particularly miss my old tasting group - chewing through young wines is easier with more examples, and people who’ve a sense of how they age. I grasp that the changes at BV have not been painless, but its been a while since I’ve bought new releases from them, and this is one I’ll be nibbling on. B+ on the first day, and turned into an A- by day 4. In my ledger, that’s pretty good.
- We do not need lots of pure Cali Cab at our house but prior examples would be kitchen rack QPR staples like 97 Souverain, 01 Arrowood, etc.