Tuesday, March 15, 2011

2009 Callaway Cellar Selection Cabernet Sauvignon, California


Color - Dark red

Nose - Raspberry and cherry jam

Taste - This is about as plain as they come, not terrible, but quite forgettable and somewhat bland. On the first sip I find out the flavor matches the nose; cherry and raspberry fruit, then alcohol bite (just a little too much), and finally a red berry-like jamminess that is a little too fruity for me. There are some sour notes on the finish, but they aren't too noticeable as the alcohol and the tannins tend to mask them. Normally I like a decent amount of tannin and alcohol, but here they distract from the actual fruit and trample on what little depth of character this wine has. The wine has a medium body with a medium finish. Not much to speak of as far as mouthfeel goes and little complexity. This is a pretty poor QPR for an 8 Dollar wine.

Overall, the lack of depth, muddled taste, and mediocrity of this wine force me to recommend that you pass on this wine. As I said before this doesn't taste "bad" (like Lucky Duck, Manyana, Manina, or Double Dog); it just doesn't do anything that well and doesn't stand out either. You can get a lot of 8 dollar bottles that taste as good or better than this. Pick up a bottle of Anakena if you want something from the Southern Hemisphere or Columbia-Crest if you want something from the Northern Hemisphere. You can also do an "eeny-meeny-miny-moe" at the wine shelf and chances are you'll get a better bottle.

Callaway Winery

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