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cabernet sauvignon
Past perfect: Napa cabs 2007
2007 Chappellet Mt. Cuvee (Napa) 21.99
Wassabig deal with the French? You want a big vintage from a world class appellation, try Napa 2007. Prices are lower than on the Bordelaise quays and you can hold the bottles in your hand.
B -21 has a killer lineup of top Napa names — Chappellet, Caymus, Cade, Conn Valley, Dominus and Plumpjack and rare stars like Lewis, Robert Craig, Robert Foley.
Chapellet continues to be a favorite of mine and they did the vintage well high and low. Pritchard Hill was great again: “Sleek, rich and intense,” according to a 97 point review from the Wine Spectator. Yet for a lot less money, the Mountain cuvee delivers a full-Bordeaux-five meritage around. A lush cab/merlot blend, smooth, ready to drink with intriguing nuances; “a glass of pure pleasure” that won 92 pts from both Spectator and B-21’s Shawn Reynolds.
Click here to view all 2007 Napa Cabs.
2007 Chappellet Mt. Cuvee (Napa)
2007 Chappellet Mt. Cuvee (Napa) 21.99
The folks at Chappellet are famous for delivering quality wines at great prices and their 2007 Mountain Cuvee is one of California’s biggest steals. A blend of 51% Cab, 46% Merlot, rounded out with Malbec, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot, this wine brims with complex and vivid fruit flavors…plum, fig, and cherry cola with a lingering strawberry essence on the finish. Wine Spectator’s Tim Fish calls the Cuvee “rich and seamlessly mouthfilling, yet complex and beautifully structured.” We all love this wine.
92 Points, Shawn Reynolds
Staff Selection, July 2010
Additional Staff Scores: 91+RB, 90 RAS, 90SR
Thar’s red in them thar hills; Rediscovering Washington Cabs
2007 Steak House Cabernet Sauvignon $9.99
The Wine Spectator went for a gambol in Washington’s high country in search of good old clarets, fashioned from cabs sauvignon and franc, and merlot instead of the newly fashionable syrah. It’s country worth exploring and getting to know. Red Mountain, Klipsun, Horse Heaven Hills and Ciel du Cheval may be premier cru locations by the time Washington’s wine map is written.
WS also picked a couple of promising vineyards already on our shelves, like the Magnificent Wine Company in the Columbia Valley. Despite the childish label, the 2007 Steak House Cabernet Sauvignon is a real smoothie and a great bargain.
Andrew Will is already firmly in our house. We have nine labels made by owner Chris Camarda, a very smart blender who gets the best grapes he can find in Eastern Washington from Yakima to Red Mountain. The Champoux vineyard up in Horse Heaven Hills is a favorite source, a preferred address for Washington’s grandest grand old cabernet.
2006 Andrew Will Champoux Vineyard $59.99
The Andrew Will 2006 from Champoux includes a big hunk of cab franc, making for a ripe luxurious wine round and seasoned with cedar, spice minerals and smoke. It gets 92 and up from everybody who’s anybody, easy to drink now and can only get better. At $59.95, you need one for a big dinner this year and one for the cellar to prove that Washington State reds are keepers, especially Camarda’s.
- Chris Sherman, The Blogging Nibbler
Markham’s Glass Mountain: Second-label joy
2007 Glass Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon $7.99
Every bargain hunter loves a second label for the value and for the thrill of being in on a secret. Others might look at a price like $7.99 as not suspect anything special. Not Parker, Wine Spectator, many fine by the glass programs or anyone who knows Markham vineyards or has tasted Glass Mountain.
I met the brand some ten years ago when the Markhams had a secure position in Napa and 300 acres in top locations. They wanted to add something at a lower price but using their savvy for quality.
That’s what you get with Glass Mountain; same smart winemaking, and good cooperage as Markham using well-sourced grapes from around the state.
And, my favorite bit, always a good scoop of syrah in the reds. to add spice and weight to all the red and black fruit. The 2007 Glass Mountain cabernet ($7.99) of fruit not too heavy on the tongue. An easy cabernet that will make you smile for the flavor as well as the deal.
- Chris Sherman, The Blogging Nibbler
Chappellet mountain cuvee: A 92-pointer for $21.99
2007 Chappellet Mt. Cuvee (Napa) $21.99
I love mountain fruit. I’m not sure why. Could be the deep roots or just the harrowing drive up to the vineyards. My fantasy is that it makes the grapes more intense and the people less so; Quiet, modest and elegant. That would be the Chappellets up on Pritchard Hill.
Their 2007 Mountain Cuvee ($21.99) a full Bordeaux meritage, 97 percent cabernet sauvignon and pinches of the other three, so there’s full complexity, with lots of flowers and fruits in the nose. In the mouth it’s sweet with plums, figs and cola. It‘s not a lightweight, but big (almost 15%), big lush and easy to drink now.
B-21 also has a full line-up of Chappellet’s top bottlings for the cellar, but we love this sampling of the Chappellet dedication to Bordeaux: It’s won at least a 90 from everyone here who’s tried it. You won’t find the like at this price.
- Chris Sherman, The Blogging Nibbler
Bordeaux tasting stowaways: Bargain cabs from California
2007 J. Lohr Cabernet Sauvignon Seven Oaks (Paso Robles) $11.99
They couldn’t steal the show at our spring tasting, not with the best of Bordeaux on display and the likes of a vertical tasting of Ch. Angelus (oh my, more of that later) … but purse-wise tasters may have found their $12 house reds from poor old California. Two familiar names tied at that price range.
One was the 2007 J. Lohr Seven Oaks cab from down Paso Robles, jammy with cherries and blackberries laced with chocolate with cinnamon and clove, a big velvet mouthful.
The other came from Louis Martini, who showed off the 2005 Lot No. 1 wow from Napa ($79.99) but it was the entry level 2007 Sonoma cabernet at $11.99 that won the most hearts. Blackberries and sexy hints of coffee, smoke and spice, and silky all the way down.
For texture and flavor, both of these are best buys in the Nibbler’s book. Get six of each.
- Chris Sherman, The Blogging Nibbler
Mountain high, flavor deep. Chappellet: Bordeaux with altitude.
There are many arguments for mountain fruit. The Chappellets and their wines are among the most winning, as any one who has met Donn, Molly or Cyril on tasting visits to Florida.
Maybe because they have lived so long high above the Napa floor, 1200 feet up on Pritchard Hill, going their own, apparently happy way.
2007 Chappellet Mt. Cuvee (Napa) $21.99
It’s tough terroir that gives a classic full-five Bordeaux blend an extra twist - elegant, wines with great intensity and greater complexity and depth according to B-21’s Shawn Reynolds. Our California dreamer rates the 2007 Mountain Cuvee a 92 and calls it one of the states best buys. It’s 51% Cab, 46% Merlot, the rest Malbec, Cab Franc and the essential Petit Verdot, “This wine brims with complex and vivid, mouth-filling fruit flavors… plum, fig, and cherry cola with a lingering strawberry essence on the finish.”
- Chris Sherman, The Blogging Nibbler
2006 Sequoia Grove Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa, California)
2006 Sequoia Grove Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley) $29.99
“I first tasted Sequoia Grove’s 2004 Reserve Cabernet at Mark Stitt’s going away party; a staff favorite that night, it was quick to disappear. Recently I ventured into the winery’s entry level 2006 Cabernet and discovered a subtle yet complex, incredibly smooth and finely-tuned wine. Near-perfect tannins carry intense plum and blackberry, cracked peppercorns and a dash of cinnamon, drifting off into a soft, elegant finish. This well-built Cab slowly unwound over an hour or so, respiring gracefully without becoming at all jammy or syrupy. Sequoia Grove crushes berries from its Rutherford Bench estate vineyards as well as those of highly-regarded Napa growers from St. Helena to Atlas Peak Hills. This union of hand-selected grapes from the reaches of Napa Valley lavishes us with one of the best $30 California Cabs on the market.”
92+ Points, Shawn Reynolds
Staff Selection, April 2010
2007 Beringer Knights Valley Cabernet Sauvignon (California)
2007 Beringer Cabernet Sauvignon Knights Valley (Reg: 19.99 On sale for limited time: $15.99)
Founded in 1875, St. Helena’s Beringer Vineyards is the oldest continuously operating winery in Napa Valley and a member of the National Register for Historic Places. “As you drive over the mountain from St. Helena,” winemaker Laurie Hook begins, “the valley opens up before your eyes and you immediately feel transported to another time, where things are slower and more rustic.” In an effort to preserve the nuances of particular areas of Knights Valley, Hook vinifies and ages each group of berries individually. She then extends the maceration period, providing a lushness on the palate supported by enhanced tannins. This lengthened maceration also accounts for the wine’s insanely deep purple hue and chunky nose of dark fruit and candied apples. Hook ages her wines in French Nevers oak for 13 months before blending with a touch of Merlot and Cab Franc to lift the mid-palate and refine the finish. Her efforts pay off in a flawless Cabernet bursting with dark berries and leather as a touch of smoke gently wafts over the top. The quality of this wine and the fact that we are nearly $6 below the national average makes this incredible California value a no brainer.
90 Points, Shawn Reynolds
Staff Selection, March 2010
2007 Columbia Crest Cabernet Sauvignon Horse Heaven Hills (Washington State)
2007 Columbia Crest Cabernet H3 Horse Heaven ($11.99)
Remarkable wine at this price, shockingly so. Cabernet Sauvignon with some Merlot and Cabernet Franc for an impressive value from the soon to be famous Horse Heaven Hills region in Washington State. Nothing I have tasted touches this value with the exception of the Rigaud Faugeres 2007 reviewed by Robert Parker at 91-92 points (also remarkable at 11.99). Park the Hummer and ride a horse!!! Amazingly Solid.