WineLife365

Posts Tagged ‘California’

The label alone on this bottle of wine should have been a clear indicator that the 2008 Fat Cat Cabernet Sauvignon was one tune worth overlooking in the catalogue of hot licks in the California Cabernet aisle.  However, I’m a lover of all jazz music and if you tell me that you’re one ‘Fat Cat’, then you better Blow Daddy!  You dig?

The 2008 Fat Cat Cabernet Sauvignon had a cornball taste:  like that old-fashioned, cherry-vanilla syrup soda pop I used to get on the boardwalk as a kid. 

2 Stars out of 4.  A lot less noodlin’ and more variation in its chording is needed for this cat to really wail.

Price: $9.99

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…but not of the risky kind with the 2008 Robert Mondavi Fumé Blanc.  Right out of the gate, one gets a sense of seriousness from this 2008 Sauvignon Blanc – pardon me – this 2008 Fumé Blanc from one of Napa Valley’s most respected wineries – the Robert Mondavi Winery.

For those that may not know, Fumé Blanc is actually a pseudonym for Sauvignon Blanc.  The person responsible for this brilliant and innovative marketing name change is Robert Mondavi.  Prior to the 1970s, Sauvignon Blanc was typically produced in a way that gave it an overly sweet taste, hence giving it a poor reputation in California.  In 1968, the Robert Mondavi Winery was offered a large and particularly good crop of Sauvignon Blanc grapes.  Mondavi then decided to embrace this as an opportunity to differentiate his Sauvignon Blanc from the others with barrel aging and eventually released a new style of California Sauvignon Blanc under the name Fumé Blanc, and the rest is history.

While tasting the 2008 Robert Mondavi Fumé Blanc, it certainly didn’t take long for my taste buds to get the sense that the boss was somehow still calling the shots, and the winemakers at Mondavi are following through spectacularly.

Dream sequence…

Boss:  As you know, we here at the Mondavi Winery created Fumé Blanc, but over the years, stiff competition from other terrific Sauvignon Blanc producers sure has made it tough for us to sell our Fumé Blanc.  I need all of you to pitch in and give me your best efforts!

For starters, we’ve got to tame that unruly Sauvignon Blanc with some barrel aging, but we can’t have people scream “Yuck!” because the oak is completely overpowering the wine. 

Winemakers:  CHECK!  We hear you boss.   We’ve got that beast Sauvignon Blanc and the oak under control!

Boss:  What about the fruit flavors?  It has to be great and keep people coming back for more! 

Winemakers:  We’ve got it boss!  Our wine will possess great tropical fruit flavors, along with a special added bonus that will enhance the consumer’s enjoyment of our wine:  with our tried and true barrel aging process, our Fumé Blanc will be as creamy and decadent as a fine Chardonnay – just like the French stuff.

Boss:  One last thing:  we need to make this the best damn wine for less than $20 (US). 

Winemakers:  A hush fell across the room, but after only a momentary hesitation, the winemakers said, “Done!”

Boss:  OK THEN – Let’s go out there and show the wine drinking public what we’re made of!

4 Stars out of 4.  Mission accomplished.  The Robert Mondavi Winery has been making Fumé Blanc for a mighty long time, and years of hands on experience really shows in their 2008 offering.  Try pairing it with a crab cake and Caesar salad.

($20 MSRP, Sample)

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…or need to spend an arm and a leg to live high on the hog!

Produced and bottled by Barrel 27 Wine Company, the 2008 High On The Hog White Wine is a magnificent blend of 39% Grenache Blanc, 36% Viognier, 20% Roussanne and 5% Marsanne grapes.

It possesses an incredible juicy concentration of tropical fruit flavors with a massive round and elegant finish that, dare I say, rivals some other top notch California Chardonnays and the “M” word…France’s Puligny-Montrachet.

I’d like to give a special shout out to Steve Kogler@ Teller Wines in Lewes, DE for introducing me to this wine – I’m completely addicted and want more!

4 Stars out of 4.  For $18.99/bottle you can afford to show off your great taste to all your wine buddies and have enough dough leftover to pay for dinner.

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I’m generally a happy person and appreciate the little things in life, but recently I’ve been in a wine rut of sorts.  My wife and I have hit a rocky patch of late with lots of “iffy” and “marginally acceptable” Cabernet Sauvignon wines in the under $15 category.  In hopes of finding a cure for what’s been ailing us, I decided to pull the WineLife365 bus into California to find salvation in two youthful Cali Cabs:  the 2008 Grayson Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon ($10.99) and the 2008 Butterfield Station Cabernet Sauvignon ($9.99). 

Unfortunately, on this night, the 2008 Grayson Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon ($10.99) and the 2008 Butterfield Station Cabernet Sauvignon ($9.99) were not meant to be our rescuers from this rut.

Both Cabs possessed only a moderately pleasurable, single dimensional red cherry focus with very little of anything else displayed.  In all fairness though, the 2008 Grayson Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon ($10.99) was a tad more complex:  it did showcase some milk chocolate notes that actually paired nicely with my Poor Man’s Chef dessert of sliced strawberries over top of a chewy chocolate chip cookie, drizzled with Hersey’s chocolate syrup. 

Sadly, the 2008 Butterfield Station Cabernet Sauvignon (I hate to say it) narrowly escaped banishment to the WineLife365 basement.

2 Stars out of 4.  My quest to quench continues.  If you have any recommendations for a Cabernet Sauvignon, under $15, that will rock my world and make my taste buds holler – I’d love to hear about it!

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