Souverain Cabernet Sauvignon North Coast 2013

Souverain Wines has been owned by Australian owned Treasury Wine Estates. This family of wines includes Beringer in the US. and Lindemans, Rosemount Estates and Penfolds in Australia. Recently, I have noticed some of their other brands in Costco at very good prices. These have included Chateau St. Jean, Etude, 19 Crimes and Souverain. There have been online articles that claim Treasury Wine Estates was having marketing problems in their US operations and last month it was announced that Souverain is being sold to Gallo. Perhaps Costco has taken advantage of the situation to bring us some terrific wine values.

Souverain Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 is from the California North Coast AVA. North Coast is the large AVA that includes the Counties of Lake, Marin, Mendocino, Napa, Sonoma and Solano. Labeling this wine as North Coast indicates that the wine blends grapes from several of these counties.

I found the wine to be a very easy drinking, soft Cabernet Sauvignon. Previous vintages of this wine have had nearly 20% of the blend from Petit Verdot, Petit Sirah, Cabernet Franc and Syrah. The wine makers are clearly looking for an approachable wine. I tasted some cherry and blackberry with enough tannins at the finish to accompany most grilled meats. The wine has 13.9% alcohol and was on sale at Costco for $10.99. This is a very good Cabernet Sauvignon for that price.

SC Wine Joe rating = 88 points

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