Mini-Review : 2010 Siegel Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, Chile

Mini-Review

And so starts my “mini-reviews”. Wines that get mini-reviews will be run-of-the-mill wines that don’t really stand out either for the good or the bad. Basically there was nothing about this wine for me to write beyond one paragraph. Let’s begin.

This wine is dark purple edging to black with a violet rim. It smells of blackberry, blueberry and sugar cookie. The primary flavors are sour blackberry, raspberry, tobacco, and hints of green bell peppers and licorice. Thankfully the mid-palate is soft alcohol and relatively tame tannins otherwise this wine would get a full review, albeit a poor one. The medium finish is just a little harsh due to some sour berry flavors that come in rather strong, thankfully they fade quickly into a mélange of green bell pepper, leather and tar; not a threesome you want to stick around and these linger just a tad into the aftertaste but it mainly highlights some blueberry/blackberry flavors and not much else. Overall this wine is priced right at the top as far as quality goes. If you were to tack on a quarter, to the 9 dollar price tag I’d say you paid too much. So at 8.99 this is the peak that this wine should ever reach. This fares right in the middle of the pack of most 9 dollar Cabernet Sauvignons; it’s not great and it’s not terrible, it just is. Anakena’s Cab offerings are better, Casillero del Diablo is worse and Penfolds is about the same. I’d say pass on this and go buy a 9 dollar Malbec where you are sure to find better quality for your money.

Siegel Winery

2008 Cameron Hughes “Lot 233” Cabernet Sauvignon, Chile

Color – Purple with a ruby rim

Nose – Black and red currant, green tomatoes, celery

Taste – Right on the attack there is a lot of dark fruit but more in the way of stewed fruit with less sugar and lots of earthy characteristics in the mid-palate and finish. The flavors start with black currant, licorice, and blackberry and smoothly transition to damp soil, forest floor, and pencil lead with perfect heat and astringency, and finally a long finish personified by burnt caramel, coffee, bittersweet chocolate and a hint of green, herbaceous vegetables. This wine is medium-to-full bodied with a nice “warmth” to it that runs through the entire wine. I prefer this slightly chilled, decanted for at least 30 minutes and paired with steak and buttered, salted vegetables.

Overall, this is more balanced but also more complex than the recent Chilean Cabs I have tried. It’s both noble and accessible with warm, deep, dark flavors that don’t smother the wine but add to the overall level of complexity and accessibility of this particular wine. I’d rate this as a good QPE with the quality definitely equal or above the price. Buy this when it’s available, in bulk if you have the funds. Simply put it’s that good of a red wine!

Cameron Hughes Wines

2009 Trader Joe’s Petit Reserve Tempranillo, California

Color – Dark red

Nose – Strawberry, currant, alcohol

Taste – According to the label this wine produces three distinct flavors: blackberry, dried currant and smoke. I found red currant though it was hard to tell if it was dried or not. Mostly this wine is just a young effort that doesn’t really show off what a Tempranillo should be. This wine isn’t bad in and of itself, if the label read “Red Table Wine” I would be OK with that. But advertising Tempranillo and providing this mess of a wine disappoints. I shouldn’t expect much for 5 dollars, but Viriato Tinto Rey is a 5 dollar Tempranillo that passes the test ably, this wine doesn’t even show up for the test. The flavors on the attack are fruit-y but rather muddled; I can discern strawberry and cherry before the mid-palate jumps all over my tongue. It’s a rather tannic, astringent and acidic mid-palate that stretches for longer than normal. It abruptly gives way to a medium length finish that picks up the cherry and strawberry flavors and only really adds what might be black currant flavors to the mix. I expected smoke on the finish or aftertaste and was disappointed yet again when it eluded me. There aren’t any spice aromas or flavors present and overall this Tempranillo doesn’t have anything to rein it in. It simply runs from fruit-y beginning into overbearing mid-palate right back into a fruit-y finish. It’s light-to-medium bodied and for the most part rather boring in texture and weight.

Overall, I’d have to call this a poor QPR. The wine itself isn’t bad, but Trader Joe’s needs to leave the Tempranillo to the Spaniards and either import from Spain or leave off this usually palate friendly grape. Sure this wine is fruit forward and you could pick it up if you like red wine that moves into “sweet” territory, but you’d be better off staying with a wine you like. I think Trader Joe’s went off the broken path a little too far with this one. Take a pass and grab the Viriato Tinto Rey instead.

2010 Gascon Malbec, Argentina

Color – Purple with a violet rim

Nose – Blueberry, strawberry, cherry

Taste – I had the chance to spend an evening out with my wife and mutual friends at The Living Room Wine Café and Lounge. First off this is not to be confused with a wine bar, the difference between them being this was closer to a club/bar than a lounge/wine sipping spot. Regardless the wine list was lengthy though not overly pretentious however they were out of the wine I was interested in trying. They offered me this wine instead at a 12 dollar discount (I shudder to think I could have purchased this bottle for that amount at my local supermarket, instead I paid 20 dollars for this bottle). This wine is young and very fruit forward. There isn’t a lot going on as far as flavor is concerned; sugary blackberry, strawberry and cherry dominate the attack with just a little plum and raisin hints as well. The mid-palate is lacking any noticeable astringency, but does carry limited alcohol and biting tannins. The finish is medium in length with sour cherry, leather and some of that cough syrup flavor I detest in wine (though it’s just a hint of the cough syrup flavor). This wine is medium bodied though it wants to be a full bodied wine. The aftertaste is pleasing enough with flavors of stone fruit and molasses.

Overall, this wine is young, fruit forward and not worth 10 dollars much less 20. It’s a pleasing enough though completely un-complex red wine. It tastes almost like sugared fruit juice. If you don’t like particularly bold red wines or are used to sweet wines this one’s for you. Otherwise I advise passing on this one; it has a poor QPR and for the same price you can get a pretty darn good Malbec if you pick up the Kaiken.

Gascon Wines

2009 Durigutti Malbec, Argentina

In livid color…Very dark purple, black at the core

Remini-scent of…Black currant, raisin, alcohol

Taste the situation…I must admit to being curious about this wine every time I walk through the Costco wine section or look at the Malbecs that are sold at Total Wine & More. The bottle is elegant and simple with cursive script in white on a black label with orange foil topping the cork. It’s because of this elegance and simplicity that I was so interested in this wine, that and the price. I finally gave in on a recent trip to Costco and purchased this bottle. Not having any preconceptions I popped the cork, poured a small glass, swirled, sniffed and sipped. Definitely decant this wine, preferably for an extended period (mine was still too tight, alcohol-y and tannic even after a few hours, that faded by the next day). Keep in mind this is a young wine and according to the winemakers does not go through a lot of the processes other wines go through as they are fermented. Take that with a grain of salt, however it’s possible that those processes take off some of the “edge“ of most red wines. This one still had some rough patches, but I was able to get through the bottle without my palate being overwhelmed by this wine’s failings. First off this is a pretty big wine, tasting heavily of fruit but equally of sharp, savory and sour flavors. The attack starts off smooth enough with raspberry, cherry and blackberry flavors, backed with a streak of leather and smoke. Those last two carry on through the mid-palate where astringency jumps right in and dries my tongue and cheeks mightily. This is followed by powerful alcohol heat and flavor, almost overbearing in its intensity; the only reason it doesn’t kill this wine is that it fades VERY fast. A medium-long finish meanders in lazily and brings with it a lot more dark, sour flavors and leaves off most of the fruit. There is leather, smoke, tar, licorice, espresso beans and just a hint of plum and blackberry. The sharp flavors are backed by another surge of alcohol heat that you can feel if you exhale through your nose just as you swallow. This is a full bodied wine with an aftertaste of leather and burnt sugared plums.

Overall, I went back and forth by the end of each glass I drank trying to decide if this was a drinker or a dud. It has its failings, but you can tell the winemakers are trying to relay something with this wine. There are hints of complexity; they just don’t work right. The overwhelming alcohol presence is what finally tipped the scales and made my mind up for me. This gets a poor QPR mostly by taste alone. The quality in and of itself is definitely there in the weight and complexity of the wine, but the flavors don’t blend in this wine at all. It’s a pretty messy, hot wine; not something I would recommend. I do plan to set a bottle of this aside in my cellar and come back to it in the next 5-10 years because I do think there is something here. I just believe this needs more time in the bottle to mellow and gain some much needed age. Take a pass on this if you are looking for a Malbec with dinner grab the Kaiken or Alamos; those two won’t let you down.

Durigutti

2008 Kirkland Signature Napa Valley Meritage, California

Shades of simplicity…Dark red nearly black at the core

Pleasantly perfumed…Black currant, plum, vanilla, alcohol

Brute-force flavors…This intrigued me as I passed through the wine section at Costco last week. Another Kirkland Signature Meritage, this one 4 dollars less expensive than the Rutherford Valley Meritage I enjoy so much. Could this possibly have an equal QPR? Let’s find out. This is darker than I remember the Rutherford Valley Meritage being, and the proportions of the varietals is different as are the vineyards the wine comes from. The aromas present here are pleasant enough though the underlying smell of alcohol is a little off-putting. The attack is warm and spicy featuring a decent amount of oak, blueberry and plum; this is a heavily oaked wine or it just tastes like it was heavily oaked as the flavor of oak/wood is present from start to finish. The mid-palate has young, playful tannins and a lot of heat and tingle from the alcohol but there is also a decent level of sweet blueberry and plum fruit that would overpower this wine if the alcohol and tannins didn’t rein this in. The long finish carries forward the plums and blueberries, adds some black cherry and blackberry to the mix and tops it all with oak, pepper, chocolate and leather. This is a heavy bodied red that fares better at room temperature and benefits from pairing with a fatty, charred piece of meat. The aftertaste is immensely pleasant and full of plums and vanilla.

Overall, this wine doesn’t reach the same level of quality or complexity as the Rutherford Valley Meritage. Granted this wine is not as expensive as that wine, but this is a less pleasing glass of wine. I give this a good QPR if you can handle a rather oaky red wine that also shows a decent amount of alcohol flavors throughout the wine itself. In all honesty this wine will probably taste better in 5 years or so. It’s a little young right now and that shows; it needs the chance to mellow and gain some age. I can’t recommend this over the Rutherford Valley Meritage and to be honest you can find better bottles at the same price point (Kirkland Signature Carneros Pinot Noir is the first that comes to mind) but I will recommend it as far as price point goes. For me I will spend the 4 extra dollars and pick up the Rutherford or purchase this to add to my cellared wines.