Trader Joe's Platinum Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Yountville Napa Valley 2016

The second Platinum Reserve wine featured in Trader Joe's Fearless Flyer is the Cabernet Sauvignon Yountville Napa Valley 2016. Since this wine is from the same producer and from the same sub-AVA as the previously reviewed Platinum Reserve Meritage, you might expect them to be similar in quality. However, there is a very important difference. The grapes for the Meritage were harvested in 2013 and the grapes for this wine are from 2016. That means that the wine was aged in oak for just a few months. The Flyer says that the aging was in a 50/50 mix of one-year old French and American oak barrels but it is very unusual for a Cabernet Sauvignon from a prestigious region to be aged for this short length of time.

I like flavors of vanilla and smoke in Cabernet Sauvignon. Those flavors come from the oak barrels and in this wine are so dominant that I did not adequately taste the fruit flavors. The wine is just a little out of balance. It is certainly a value to buy Cabernet Sauvignon from Oakville , Napa Valley for $15 but this wine is not exceptional. I would choose the Platinum Reserve Meritage every time over the Cabernet Sauvignon.

SC Wine Joe rating = 89 points

Comments

Ken Wright Cellars Pinot Noir Willamette Valley 2018

I was aware of the reputation of Ken Wright Cellars for Willamette Valley Pinot Noir but had never tried one of their wines. The winery is most known for single vineyard Pinot Noirs but their entry level wine is a blend from several vineyards. When I have looked for wine from Ken Wright, I have either found the single vineyard wines costing more than $60 or I have found the entry level Willamette Valley blend priced significantly higher than the $22 price on the winery website. One well known wine shop in downtown Greenville actually sells it for $34. I guess that the wine must be really good to command higher than retail prices. Two things have recently happened. Costco has a Ken Wright premium Pinot Noir for around $40 and Whole Foods Market has the entry level Willamette Valley Pinot Noir on sale for $22 rather than their usual price of $27. I chose the entry level Willamette Valley Pinot Noir and I am sure glad that I did. Ken Wright Willamette Valley Pinot Noir has a deep r

Parcelica Grande 2018

It has been a little over 3 months since I last posted on this blog. I have taken that time to enjoy old favorites as well as wines bought directly from wineries. I needed a break from trying a lot of unfamiliar wines so that I might have something new to write about. However, now I am planning a live video post for the OlliLife newsletter at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Furman University about value wines from lesser known wine regions and this will require Wine Jane and I to do a lot of research. Well, someone has to do it! There are few places that have as much affordable quality wine as Spain. The best known wines from Spain come from areas like Rioja in the northern part of Spain. However, even greater values can be found further south in the areas bordering the Mediterranean Sea. One such area is Yecla, about 50 miles inland from the sea. In the past seven years, I have posted about four wines from Yeccla. All have been blends of the traditional Spanish g

Dragon Vine, a novel by Steven Laine

It has been a year since I have posted to the South Carolina Wine Blog. However, I was provided with an advance copy of the latest novel by Steven Laine entitled Dragon Vine for my review. Mr. Laine writes novels with a wine focused theme and I reviewed Mr. Laine's previous novel Root Cause in 2019, which I greatly enjoyed. The synopsis of Dragon Vine is as follows: When his father dies in a wildfire, Carmine Cooper takes over the family winery in the middle of harvest, putting his dreams of becoming an architect on hold. He soon finds himself fighting with a vengeful neighbor, blackmailed by a local gang, harassed by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) authorities, and the target of an ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives) investigation. Carmine’s only hope to solve his problems and finish his first solo vintage successfully rests in identifying an unknown grape variety his father grew and made into wine for a quarter century with links to an a

South Carolina Wine Joe

Search This Blog