What to do with a Saturday afternoon blizzard dumping more than 2 feet of snow and turning your entire neighborhood into a post-apocalyptic set for the next James Cameron Movie?
Review wine of course!
I admit it. The past few weeks of wine tasting has made a bit of a cork scrooge out of me. As we have made our way from cabs to zins and from Napa Valley to South America, one thing has become clear: there are some very nice red wines available today for casual drinking well under $10. The lesson? If you are going to spend north of a ten spot, even a few dollars north, the wine better be more than just drinkable, it better be good.
Sadly, the 2006 Chateau Ste Michelle Cabernet Sauvignon Columbia Valley is the first to fall victim to this new epiphany. The Washington State wine, sourced from the Columbia Valley vineyards in eastern Washington, is a blend of 76% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Syrah, 2% Merlot, 1% Cabernet Franc and 1% Malbec (I mean really, did they just run out of Cab and find some Franc laying around to fill the bottle? Poor Franc.).
The cabernet does offer a nice first impression with a fruit forward, slightly dry, taste that has a lingering black cherry aroma. A few minutes later as we poured the second glass, the wine had not only failed to mellow, it actually appeared to have “tarted up” a bit.
All in all, the 2006 vintage was entirely drinkable, and if you found it on a restaurant menu for a good price by the glass I doubt you would be disappointed. However, for $15 a bottle, the wine is overpriced and fails to deliver the quality of many of its lesser priced rivals.
The Cork Scrooge 
[…] 1934 – and I have not been on the best of terms lately. As you may recall, I reviewed their Columbia Valley Cabernet earlier this month and found the wine to be totally […]
By: Redemption! 2006 Chateau Ste Michelle Syrah « The Cork Scrooge on February 11, 2010
at 7:07 pm
[…] The 2006 Syrah was a superb find, but there wasn’t a single exciting thing to be said for the 2006 Columbia Valley Cabernet. And now I know why: it appears the wily Washingtonians saved their best value cab for those […]
By: What a $15 Cab Should Taste Like « The Cork Scrooge on February 15, 2010
at 6:31 pm