The Jacob’s Creek wine brand started back in 1976 and was named after a creek in the Barossa Valley, on the banks of which the first commercial vineyard in the region was planted.  The grapes in this wine, however, don’t come from the Barossa Valley.  Rather, they come from the Coonawarra region, which is south of Barossa Valley and is the southernmost wine region in South Australia.  This is a cool region, with a maritime influence, that is known for its cabernet sauvignon.

Coonawarra is also a long ways away from Cincinnati, Ohio (where I’m tasting this wine) and I’m sometimes amazed at the idea that they can ship a bottle of wine from Australia, sell it for about ten bucks and still make a profit.  Sometimes the things we take for granted are really pretty amazing when you step back and think about them.

This wine is really bright on the nose, with lively cassis, beet and blackberry aromas.  It also has a slight herbal note.  The palate is also quite bright, with tangy cherry flavors leading the way and evolving into a plum flavor.  The acidity is stellar, making this a wonderful wine to pair with fatty foods.  The finish is relatively long and shows cherry and beet flavors.  While some cabernet is just big and bold, this one is bright and exciting.

Wine: Jacob’s Creek Coonawarra Reserve
Variety: Cabernet Sauvignon
Vintage: 2009
Alcohol: 13.9%
Rating: 86
Price: $10.99

Disclosure: This wine was received as a media sample.

While packaging really doesn’t tell you much about the wine inside the bottle, it’s a critically important element for wine producers.  The truth is as consumers we often will buy the bottle that we think looks the best.  But what do the looks of a bottle really tell us?  Regardless of whether the label design is any indication of quality, I’d have to say that I really like the look of this wine.  The design is simple, clean and attractive.  So, this one scores well on the bottle design… but of course what we really care about is what’s inside the bottle.  And fortunately, I was pleased with that too.

The name 337 comes from the name of the grape vines.  In Bordeaux and Burgundy, each vine clone is given a unique identification number to help vintners identify how different vines perform.  The producers of 337 wines saw something in the 337 vine that they thought would work well in the Bordeaux-like conditions of their Clay Station Vineyard in Lodi, California.  Some 15 years ago they planted the vines and now they’re creating some luscious wine from them.

While some cabernet has other varietals blended in to shape the flavor, this wine is 100% cabernet sauvignon and 100% from the 337 vine clone.  The wine was barrel aged in a combination of French and American oak, so that does impart some influence on the flavor profile.  But other than the spice from the oak, this is all 337.

Dark chocolate, cassis and cherry scented pipe tobacco aromas give this wine a delightful nose.  In the mouth it brings out cherry and blackberry flavors with vibrant acidity.  The tannins are sufficient, adding smoothness to the texture.  It finishes long with blackberry, black tea and a touch of spice.

Wine: 337
Variety: Cabernet Sauvignon
Vintage: 2009
Alcohol: 14.5%
Rating: 87
Price: $14.99

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Disclosure: This wine was received as a media sample.

Continuing with the cabernet sauvignon theme, today we’re checking out another Chilean cabernet from the Colchagua Valley region in Chile.

We’ve reviewed a few other Calcu wines, such as their malbec and their red blend, and we’ve found them to be generally decent.  They’ve not necessarily knocked our socks off, but they’re still good.  And that trend continues with this cabernet.

While this wine is labeled as cabernet sauvignon, it also has 10% carmenere (which adds a touch of Chilean uniqueness to the wine) and 10% petit verdot (which adds a touch of awesomeness to the wine).

This wine shows some of the classic cassis aromas along with vanilla, plum and a touch of floral.  The palate offers scrumpteous blackberry and plum flavors up front, followed by some dark chocolate.  The acidity is good and the tannins are sufficient.  The finish has an average length and berry flavors.  It did take a while for this wine to open up and really shine, so give this one some time and I’d recommend decanting to speed it up.

Wine: Calcu Reserva
Variety: Cabernet Sauvignon
Vintage: 2009
Alcohol: 13.5%
Rating: 85
Price: $14.00

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Disclosure: This wine was received as a media sample.

A lot of the wines that I review seem to have a similar story.  A family owns a vineyard for generations and recently renovated their winery, blah, blah, blah.  Well, the story behind Maquis has a slightly different twist.  Yes, it’s a vineyard that has been owned by the same family for over 100 years.  But for most of that time, the family that owns this vineyard only produced grapes for other vintners.  It wasn’t until about ten years ago that they decided to make some of their own wine from the grapes they grow.

They built a new “gravity flow” winery to produce their wine.  That essentially means that the winery is designed to use gravity to move the wine through the process rather than pumping the wine from place to place.  The theory is that it treats the wine more gently, creating a better product.  For example, during the initial crush you don’t really want to “crush” the grapes but gently crack them open and let the juice escape.  If you were to truly crush the wine, you might also crush the seeds within the grapes adding bitter flavors to the wine.

Since 2005, winemaker Xavier Choné has been consulting with Maquis to help them take better advantage of location within their vineyards in Colchagua Valley.  Choné works with vineyards around the world and is associated with some great wines, like Opus One, and Maquis is the only South American vineyard he’s working with.

When I first smell a wine to try to judge it, I find myself asking, “Is it varietally correct?  Is it balanced?  Is it harmonious?  Is it interesting?  Is it exciting?”  And with this wine, the answer to all of those questions is a clear “yes!” Then I start to dig into it, “what do I smell here?”  In this case, it starts with chocolate aromas, layered with cassis, plum and cedar.  In the mouth, it has a wonderful, smooth and almost creamy texture.  It’s loaded with ripe fruit flavors, like black cherry, plum and blackberry.  The finish is relatively long and features cherry and black tea flavors.  Overall, I’m impressed and definitely recommend this one.

Wine: Maquis
Variety: Cabernet Sauvignon
Vintage: 2009
Alcohol: 14%
Rating: 89
Price: $20.00

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Disclosure: This wine was received as a media sample.

Last week, David did a review of a sauvignon blanc from Robert Mondavi, so I thought I’d work in another Mondavi wine today.  This one is a cabernet sauvignon from their “Private Selection” line.

Like David, I haven’t had any negative experiences with any of Mondavi’s wines.  I’ve had some that are great, some that are good and some that are mediocre, but I haven’t had any that are bad.  Yet I come across some consumers who scoff at the idea of drinking a glass of Robert Mondavi.  I suppose that could be due to their omnipresence on wine shelves.  It seems that everywhere you go in the US you’ll find some Robert Mondavi wines.  Good for them to have such great distribution, but I guess I can see why some consumers would think it’s not that “special” if you can get it anywhere.  Nonetheless, it’s often a decent, reliable choice.

This wine has a nice, spicy nose with tobacco and cedar notes complementing plum and blackberry aromas.  The palate is very juicy and offers blackberry and dried plum flavors with good acidity.  It has a little bit of a black tea flavor to it, but the feel of the tannins is a little bit light and I would have liked a little more to add some structure to the wine.  But still, for eleven bucks this isn’t a bad bottle of wine.

Wine: Robert Mondavi Private Selection
Variety: Cabernet Sauvignon
Vintage: 2010
Alcohol: 13.5%
Rating: 84
Price: $11.00

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Disclosure: This wine was received as a sample.

As any regular reader here probably knows, I’m a fan of Chilean wines.  It’s not that I have any personal connection to Chile, it’s just that we tend to find really good values from this region.  This cabernet from Peñalolen is no exception.

This wine comes from the Maipo Valley region in Chile, which is one of the oldest and most productive wine regions in Chile.  Maipo Valley is best known for its red wines, and particularly for its cabernet sauvignon.

The first smell of this wine makes me say, “hmmm, that’s nice” which is pretty good, but not quite a “wowee!”  It shows some pretty typical aromas for a cabernet sauvignon, like cassis, black cherry, cedar and pencil shavings.  The palate offers up tart blackberry, plum and coffee flavors with really good acidity.  The mouthfeel is nice with this one too.  The finish is medium in length and provides a tart cherry finish.

Wine: Peñalolen
Variety: Cabernet Sauvignon
Vintage: 2009
Alcohol: 14%
Rating: 87
Price: $18.00

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Disclosure: This wine was received as a sample.

Graffigna Wines is part of the Pernod Ricard portfolio of brands, although it has a rich history as a family-owned winery going back to 1870.

The Centenario line of wines was added in 1970, marking the centennial anniversary of the winery (in case you didn’t figure out the translation.)  And while many consumers are just excited about malbec from Argentina, this wine proves that Argentine cabernet sauvignon is something to get excited about too.

Beautiful is the first word to come to mind when smelling this wine.  It exhibits well-concentrated cherry aromas supported by blackberry, coffee and cocoa aromatics.  The palate offers ripe cherry, blackberry chocolate and black tea flavors with silky tannins.  It finishes exceptionally long with more of the cherry flavor, but also an earthy note from the tannins.  It’s a well-balanced and structured wine.

Wine: Graffigna Centenario
Variety: Cabernet Sauvignon
Vintage: 2007
Alcohol: 14%
Rating: 86
Price: $13.99

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Disclosure: This wine was received as a sample.

Last week, Cheryl Indelicato from DFV Wines was in town for the Cincinnati International Wine Festival and I had a chance to meet up with her for lunch and to taste the lineup in her new brand of wines, Handcraft.  I had previously tasted the cabernet sauvignon, but this was an opportunity to revisit it and check out her other wines.

Cheryl is from the third generation of the family that owns DFV Wines and she’s worked at the company for 22 years, yet this brand is her first personal foray into the winemaking process.  The majority of the work Cheryl has done at DFV has been on the business side, in marketing, PR, human resources and hospitality.  And for her first vintage, I’d say she did a stellar job at creating some damn good wines for the price.  Of course, she didn’t do it alone.  She partnered with winemaker Alicia Ysais on this project.

In creating this new wine brand, Cheryl had a couple things in mind to make these wines unique.  First, she wanted to include some Italian varietals in the blends as a nod to her heritage and to give the wines a unique expression.  The red wines have a little sangiovese while the whites have some malvasia bianca.  She also wanted to make a wine that particularly appeals to women.  Well, let me put a dress on because these wines appeal to me too.

The label on these wines is fun too, where they have a “wine profile ribbon” in the design.  All the elements in the graphic represent characteristics of the wine.  Some represent flavor characteristics, like the cherries and nutmeg graphics.  And some elements represent the care taking of the wine, like the birds which represent the sustainable agriculture on their vineyards.

Spice is the name of the game with this wine.  Nutmeg and rose petal aromas give it a unique twist.  It also shows some black currant on the nose.  The palate offers black currant, cherry and plum flavors up front supported by plenty of chocolate and spice on the mid-palate and into the finish.  The acidity is near perfect and the tannins are firm.  The finish is long and luscious.

This wine gets a solid thumb’s up.  At this price, it’s an outstanding cabernet.

Wine: Handcraft Cabernet Sauvignon
Variety: Cabernet Sauvignon
Vintage: 2010
Alcohol: 14.5%
Rating: 86
Price: $12.99

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Disclosure: This wine was received as a sample.

When you’re into bargain-priced wines, it’s good to find some reliable names.  While one of the fun things about wine is trying different ones—since the number of options is nearly limitless—sometimes you’re in a rush, or you don’t feel like mulling over the options and you want to just grab a bottle you know will be OK.  Irony has become one of those brands for me.  It’s reasonably priced, it’s always good, sometimes it’s great, but it’s never let me down.

This cabernet is no exception.  While it’s not mind-blowing, it’s still pretty darn good.  And unique enough to stand out from the crowd of average cheap cabernet on the shelf.

The nose of this wine has a somewhat subtle intensity, but offers light aromas of cedar, black currant, tobacco and black cherry.  The palate is soft and approachable, with black cherry and plum flavors up front.  The mid-palate and finish bring a little bit of black licorice into the mix.  There’s also a tarragon note on the finish, so break out this one with the bernaise sauce.  The acidity is sufficient and the tannins are moderate.  It’s not as big and jammy as a lot of California cabernet sauvignons.

Wine: Irony Cabernet Sauvignon
Variety: Cabernet Sauvignon
Vintage: 2008
Alcohol: 14.5%
Rating: 86
Price: $12.00

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Disclosure: This wine was received as a sample.

Concannon is a California wine brand that’s been around for a long time.  In fact, it’s roots go back over 125 years.  That’s a long history for an American winery, particularly when you factor in prohibition.  And with such a long history, Concannon has pioneered a number of things in California wine.  They’re best known for introducing petite sirah, but they also have a history with cabernet sauvignon for which they pioneered some now widely-planted clones.

I generally like Concannon.  They’re one of those brands that’s dependable and very reasonably priced.  And while we’ve reviewed a number of their wines here it’s been a while since we’ve reviewed any of their cabernet sauvignon.  So, let’s see what this one has to offer.

Tomato leaf, plum, black olive and herbal aromas give tis wine a nice and complex nose, which moves beyond just fruit.  In the mouth, it has a very nice feel, which is almost silky.  The flavors are led by a very ripe blackberry note, supported by black cherry and chocolate.  The acidity is sufficient.  It finishes relatively long with ripe blackberry and black tea flavors.  The mouthfeel and ripeness of the fruit on the palate make this wine stand out in this price range.

Wine: Concannon Central Coast Cabernet Sauvignon
Variety: Cabernet Sauvignon
Vintage: 2009
Alcohol: 13.5%
Rating: 86
Price: $10.00

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Disclosure: This wine was received as a sample.