| The Wine Industry Spotlight |
| Beam Wine Estates presents a Blind California Cab Tasting at Cork |
Wendie Waters of Qwik Way/Beverage City fame was
kind enough to invite me to sit in on an education
tasting for her staff at their new Cork Wine
Store/Tasting Bar this past Thursday. By the way, if
you have not been to Cork yet, do yourself a favor and
check it out. It is a really hip and chic place to sample
wines before you buy them. When I was in there on
Thursday, the tasting bar menu included the Amon Ra,
a Robert Parker 98 point Shiraz from Australia, and
the new 2005 Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon. Holy
smokes they were incredible!
Steve Hosmer, the Director of Wine Education West,
from Beam Wine Estates, on this day would be leading
us through an educational class on the origins of the
Cabernet Sauvignon grape varietal. He then
concluded the event with a blind tasting of some of the
California Cabernet Sauvignon wines in the Beam
Wine Estate portfolio. These wines included; the Clos
Du Bois 2004 Alexander Valley Reserve, the Clos Du
Bois 2003 Marlstone (a meritage wine blend), a
Geyser Peak 2004 Reserve Alexandre Meritage, a
Geyser Peak 2004 Alexander Valley Reserve
Cabernet, the Atlas Peak 2003 Napa Valley Cabernet
Sauvignon (the lone Napa wine) and the Wild Horse
2004 Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon. The Wild
Horse was the only Cab in the tasting that came from
the central California wine regions. To me it was easy
to pick out because it did not have the same profile as
the other wines, not as much depth and not the extreme
ripe fruit flavors that the rest possessed. To be
truthful though, it probably represented a style more
first my two favorites were the Clos Du Bois wines, I
just liked how the oak meshed with the fruit in them
and they were both very approachable wines to drink
now. However, after letting the Atlas Peak, which was
the sixth and last wine in our tasting, sit in the glass for
over an hour, it really opened up and I believe
ultimately became the champion in my book. I guess it
depends on what your style is, but I loved the
complexity the wine showed. Big tannins though,
either cellar it for a while or decant it for an hour.
Either way you’ll be in for a real treat! The Geyser
Peak wines are perfect for those that like a more
subtle style of cabernet and outside of the Wild Horse,
they probably would make the best food wines in our
tasting.
Before the tasting actually started, Steve took us
through a slide show presentation that covered the
origins and profile of the Cabernet Sauvignon grape
and some satellite photographs of Napa and Sonoma
and the regions the Beam Wine Estates wines came
from. You can find most of the facts that Steve
covered on this esteemed red wine grape on our
Cabernet Sauvignon Varietal page. Some of the
highlights about the grape are as follows; its origin is in
France where it was the offspring of the two wine grape
varietals, Sauvignon Blanc (a white wine grape) and
Cabernet Franc (a red wine grape). Hence the name
Cabernet Sauvignon was derived from the two parent
grapes. Its birth onto the wine scene actually took
place in the late 18th century so even though it enjoys
the status of “King” amongst all the wine grape
varietals, it is virtually a baby compared to other wine
producing varietals like Pinot Noir for example. It is
relatively easy for growers to maintain in the vineyards
because it has such a thick skin and smaller berry size
than most other grape variatels. This means that it is
more resistant to rot and other casualties in the
vineyard like birds or accidental punctures from
vineyard workers, etc… Its thick skin and the ratio of
skin to juice is also what accounts for the huge tannin
structure the resulting wines have become famous for.
I liked the analogy Steve used here with regards to the
tannin structure of Cab grapes. He said it is like
brewing tea. The less water you use to brew your tea
(set the bag in), the more tannic or rough the tea will
taste. That is exactly what is going on with Cab
grapes. More skin (tea bag) mixed with less juice
(water). Other than the obvious “its easy to grow and
sell” factor for vineyard growers, another reason it is
appealing to them is that there is very little danger of
frost and rot damage due to the fact it buds later than
most other grape varietals.
It was fun tasting the wines blind, even though I had
tasted them all before, I still guessed wrong on a few of
them. The Wild Horse was the easiest to pick out
because it was clearly different than the rest and the
two Clos Du Bois wines were also very familiar to me.
I think the most interesting thing in the tasting though
was how radically the Atlas Peak Cab changed in the
course of an hour. Oxygen really has quite an effect
on wine. As the others started to taper off as they
oxygenated, the Atlas Peak kept building momentum.
This only goes to prove, at least in my humble opinion,
that Napa is still the king of great Cabs in the State of
California.
kind enough to invite me to sit in on an education
tasting for her staff at their new Cork Wine
Store/Tasting Bar this past Thursday. By the way, if
you have not been to Cork yet, do yourself a favor and
check it out. It is a really hip and chic place to sample
wines before you buy them. When I was in there on
Thursday, the tasting bar menu included the Amon Ra,
a Robert Parker 98 point Shiraz from Australia, and
the new 2005 Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon. Holy
smokes they were incredible!
Steve Hosmer, the Director of Wine Education West,
from Beam Wine Estates, on this day would be leading
us through an educational class on the origins of the
Cabernet Sauvignon grape varietal. He then
concluded the event with a blind tasting of some of the
California Cabernet Sauvignon wines in the Beam
Wine Estate portfolio. These wines included; the Clos
Du Bois 2004 Alexander Valley Reserve, the Clos Du
Bois 2003 Marlstone (a meritage wine blend), a
Geyser Peak 2004 Reserve Alexandre Meritage, a
Geyser Peak 2004 Alexander Valley Reserve
Cabernet, the Atlas Peak 2003 Napa Valley Cabernet
Sauvignon (the lone Napa wine) and the Wild Horse
2004 Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon. The Wild
Horse was the only Cab in the tasting that came from
the central California wine regions. To me it was easy
to pick out because it did not have the same profile as
the other wines, not as much depth and not the extreme
ripe fruit flavors that the rest possessed. To be
truthful though, it probably represented a style more
first my two favorites were the Clos Du Bois wines, I
just liked how the oak meshed with the fruit in them
and they were both very approachable wines to drink
now. However, after letting the Atlas Peak, which was
the sixth and last wine in our tasting, sit in the glass for
over an hour, it really opened up and I believe
ultimately became the champion in my book. I guess it
depends on what your style is, but I loved the
complexity the wine showed. Big tannins though,
either cellar it for a while or decant it for an hour.
Either way you’ll be in for a real treat! The Geyser
Peak wines are perfect for those that like a more
subtle style of cabernet and outside of the Wild Horse,
they probably would make the best food wines in our
tasting.
Before the tasting actually started, Steve took us
through a slide show presentation that covered the
origins and profile of the Cabernet Sauvignon grape
and some satellite photographs of Napa and Sonoma
and the regions the Beam Wine Estates wines came
from. You can find most of the facts that Steve
covered on this esteemed red wine grape on our
Cabernet Sauvignon Varietal page. Some of the
highlights about the grape are as follows; its origin is in
France where it was the offspring of the two wine grape
varietals, Sauvignon Blanc (a white wine grape) and
Cabernet Franc (a red wine grape). Hence the name
Cabernet Sauvignon was derived from the two parent
grapes. Its birth onto the wine scene actually took
place in the late 18th century so even though it enjoys
the status of “King” amongst all the wine grape
varietals, it is virtually a baby compared to other wine
producing varietals like Pinot Noir for example. It is
relatively easy for growers to maintain in the vineyards
because it has such a thick skin and smaller berry size
than most other grape variatels. This means that it is
more resistant to rot and other casualties in the
vineyard like birds or accidental punctures from
vineyard workers, etc… Its thick skin and the ratio of
skin to juice is also what accounts for the huge tannin
structure the resulting wines have become famous for.
I liked the analogy Steve used here with regards to the
tannin structure of Cab grapes. He said it is like
brewing tea. The less water you use to brew your tea
(set the bag in), the more tannic or rough the tea will
taste. That is exactly what is going on with Cab
grapes. More skin (tea bag) mixed with less juice
(water). Other than the obvious “its easy to grow and
sell” factor for vineyard growers, another reason it is
appealing to them is that there is very little danger of
frost and rot damage due to the fact it buds later than
most other grape varietals.
It was fun tasting the wines blind, even though I had
tasted them all before, I still guessed wrong on a few of
them. The Wild Horse was the easiest to pick out
because it was clearly different than the rest and the
two Clos Du Bois wines were also very familiar to me.
I think the most interesting thing in the tasting though
was how radically the Atlas Peak Cab changed in the
course of an hour. Oxygen really has quite an effect
on wine. As the others started to taper off as they
oxygenated, the Atlas Peak kept building momentum.
This only goes to prove, at least in my humble opinion,
that Napa is still the king of great Cabs in the State of
California.
| Beam Wine Estates |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |