Cabernet

News, Reviews October 14, 2013

Grape Expectations – Eight Wines that Pair With Summer and Fall.

Ok, first-things-first, I didn’t write the title for this article. “Grape Expectations” is way beyond my reaches of my creativity. Secondly; I wrote this article a couple of months ago for the Jacksonville Magazine “Taste” Edition…and I know we’re out of Summer now….but I think it still has relevance…since the weather here is Florida is so bloody-warm well into November! 4 Summer Wines Taltarni “Tache,” Brut Sparkling, Australia Description The term Tache (meaning “stained” in…

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Reviews April 19, 2013

Baldacci Cabernet, Stags Leap District, Napa Valley.

  Grapes 100% Cabernet   Facts There’s Napa and there’s Napa. The term “Napa Cabernet” is all too often used to refer to any wine that hails from “The Valley.” This rhetoric quite effectively tars all wineries with the same brush: from the behemoth brands, supplying many of the large grocery stores with their generic-tasting wine-flavored alcohol; all the way through to the small estate properties, producing miniscule quantities of truly hand-crafted wines each year….

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Reviews February 1, 2013

Castello di Amorosa “La Castellana” Napa Valley, California.

Grapes 70% Cabernet, 16% Merlot, 14% Sangiovese   Facts The Universe is a strange place…. ”Oh dear…he’s getting all weird and deep on us!” Wait a minute!!! Hear me out!!! So I was pouring at a wine tasting at a private residence last week, here in Jacksonville, and I happened to be looking through their wine cellar…because I’m nosy like that. Now let me just tell you that this is one of the most INSANE…

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Reviews October 12, 2012

Yalumba Scribbler Cabernet/Shiraz, Barossa Valley, Australia.

Grapes 61% Cabernet, 31% Shiraz   Facts I know it’s kind-of a sweeping statement, but it’s hard to go wrong with the wines from Yalumba. They always give plenty of bang for the buck! I actually picked up this bottle (as well as a few others) on my recent trip back to the Motherland (England). It’s not that you can’t find this wine in the U.S., you certainly can; but since I was staying at…

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Reviews July 26, 2012

Duel by Darioush, Napa, California.

Grapes 60% Cabernet, 40% Shiraz   Facts I’d never seen this wine before, so I was over the moon when I received it as a gift on Tuesday! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: “Keep your friends close, and your wine-drinker friends closer!” The name Duel comes from the blend of Cabernet and Shiraz, and is illustrated on the front label by the dueling lion and bull. The idea is that the…

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Reviews March 25, 2012

Fiftyrow Cabernet, Napa, 2007.

    Grapes 100% Cabernet   Facts Admittedly I’ve bit on a little “Napa-binge” lately, for which there is very good reason: I lost faith. Napa just hasn’t been “turning me on” much recently.  There’s so much out there, but I think so many wineries are resting on their laurels, pumping out good (but not great) juice, slapping Napa on the label, charging a premium and hoping for the best. Fair play to them though,…

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Pairings, Reviews March 5, 2012

Cabernet Marinated Steak with Gorgonzola, Bacon and Shallot Butter Paired with Fiftyrow Cabernet.

I feel the need to start by pointing-out that this was a pretty-special pairing. If you’ve never actually taken the time to prepare one of the recipes featured in these food and wine pairings, I suggest you start right here! I will say that I’ve never actually taken the time to marinade steaks overnight before. I’m pretty old-school when it comes to how I usually cook my steaks, namely; liberally coating them with garlic salt…

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Funny, News January 22, 2012

World’s First Meteorite-Aged Wine.

Norwich-born Ian Hutcheon (NB: I KNEW it would be a Brit behind this!) has released a Cabernet Sauvignon called Meteorito, aged with a 4.5 billion-year-old meteorite from the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter. The “extra-terrestrial wine” was created at Hutcheon’s Tremonte Vineyard in the Cachapoal Valley in Chile, which he bought in 2009. “I’ve been involved in wines and astronomy for many, many years and I wanted to find some way of combining the…

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Funny, News, Pairings December 30, 2011

A Redneck Christmas.

Christmas is a CRAZY time for most people, and I’m no exception, therefore this post has taken a few days to get together. I hope you all (or should I say “y’all”, with an English accent) had a great Christmas! It just seemed to zip by, well, at least did for me! It feels like we only JUST put our tree up! Now we have to take the bloody-thing down again….Christmas was soooo much easier…

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Reviews December 29, 2011

Black Slate Priorat, Spain, 2009.

  Grape 46% Garnacha, 36% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Merlot, 2% Syrah.   Facts Ahhhh Priorat! My favorite of all Spanish wines! I tasted my first Priorat back in 2005, and I remember it being my true-awakening to Spanish wine! I’ve since come around to enjoy the majority of styles coming out of Spain, but I will say; if you’re a “New World” wine drinker (i.e. everything from outside of Europe), Priorat is going to be…

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