Talk-A-Vino

As promised, the bottle of 2010 Turley The Label Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley ($40, 14.5% ABV) was open today, and here are my notes – almost live, as I still have some wine left in the glass. For those who just run into this post, it is pretty much a sequel to my rant about the bottle, which is extremely indiscreet, and the post answering that rant and explaining that the bottle looks that way by design.

Now let’s go past the bottle itself, and let’s talk about the content – i. e., the wine. Considering that I started from the rant, I wanted to give this bottle a proper evaluation, so here we go, step by step. We even reached out for the Reidel Cabernet glasses, which are only used for the special occasions.

Color: Dark garnet color. You can’t read through the glass, so the wine definitely needs more time.

Rim variation: absent, it is a young wine. But – rim is pretty wide, which suggests high alcohol content.

Smell: Blueberries, hint of tobacco, earthiness, a touch of barnyard (which I personally like) – on the nose, this wine resembled Dunn Cabernet.

Taste: earthy, with touch of green notes which disappeared after ten minutes in the glass, alcohol initially noticeable, but as wine continued to breathe, it became well integrated. Tobacco and dark chocolate notes, touch of eucalyptus, fresh plums, black currant  and more blueberries – but restrained, no blueberry jam of any kind.

Legs: Very visible, also carrying some color – suggesting that this is full-bodied wine.

Finish: Long. Tannins only started showing up after about 30 seconds, and then they lingered for probably another minute.

Conclusion: This is one beautiful wine. This wine was described by the winemakers as an attempt to recreate Napa Cabernet as it was in 60th and 70th, more of restrained and down to earth type – I think this attempt was very successful. The wine was very balanced, with fruit, acidity and tannins being in a complete harmony. Drinkability: 9-

I’m not going to recite my learned lessons again (I already recouped them in the previous post), but yes – don’t judge a wine by its bottle, at least I will try not to. Cheers!