Cabernet Sauvignon

This is made from 84% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Petit Verdot and the rest Merlot and Malbec.  Insignia is one of the First Growth wines of California.  Its great just about every vintage and has been for decades.  This one is no exception.  Inky purple.  The nose has cassis, graphite, blueberries, leather and cigar box.  On the palate, this is still young.  Medium tannins.  Great balance.  Lots of cassis and some blueberries with underlying damp forest floor.  Long finish.  Delicious.  Will work great with heartier foods and certainly with meat dishes.  The price on these is up to around $250

This is a blend of 97.5% Cabernet Sauvignon and 2.5% Petit Verdot from Heidi Barrett.  Purple in color, ruby at the rim.  The nose has cassis, slight smoke, bell pepper and tobacco.  On the palate, this is nice and everything is in proportion.  Not a lot of depth.  Tannins mostly resolved.  Worked well with vegetarian stuffed mushrooms.  A fine wine but its price tag on release was $250.  Granted 2011 was a difficult vintage, but that is a lot of money for this wine. 

Sadly, this bottle did not hold up.  At 34 years from vintage, it would have been nice, but the odds were against it.  The bottle was oxidized.  Likely culprit, was cork failure.  

Treasure Hunter wines have made a nice name for themselves buying excess juice that was not wanted and repackaging it and selling it at a lower price.  Some offerings are, of course, better than others.  This one is quite good.  It retails for around $20 which is an excellent value for a quality Washington sate Cabernet.  Purple in color.  The nose has nice cassis with leather and some cedar spice.  On the palate, this has nice Cassis fruit.  Some underlying spice.  Medium tannins.  Good finish.  Will work with heartier foods.  Very solid and actually, better than just solid.  

Purple in color.  The nose has cassis, black raspberries, and sandal wood.  Also an herbal note that was hard to describe.  A fellow taster said green olives and that is not too far off.  On the palate, the Syrah seem to dominate although this is an 80/20 blend of Cabernet and Syrah.  Black raspberries, an underlying char and some black olive notes.  A very nice texture although a bit soft.  The finish is a bit bitter black raspberry but not in a bad way.  Overall, an excellent wine.  It improved with air and more Cab notes seem to come out.  It will be interesting to see how this ages.  

From Magnum.  This has held up nicely and is drinking well.  Like and older Bordeaux.  Ruby in color, slight bricking at the rim.  The nose is nice with cassis and cherries along with some tobacco and dust.  On the palate, this has layers of fruit and earthy forest floor.  Good balance.  This seems very food friendly.  Probably a bit past prime at this point, but still with lots to offer.  

Purple in color.  The nose has nice cassis, a bit of blueberries, spice and cocoa dust.  On the palate, this is very good but lacks intensity.  Lots of cassis fruit along with some chocolate.  Good finish.  This won't get any better but should be good for another ten years.  Will work with medium and heavier foods.  

Deep purple in color, ruby at the rim.  The nose is great with cassis, slight blueberries, soy sauce, and slight baking spices.  On the palate, this is young, tight and tannic, but given that, it presents delicious drinking right now.  Of course, give it five or ten years and there is definitely some upside.  The palate has lots of cassis intertwined with a nice earthiness with some salinity.  Good finish.  Needs heavier foods right now.  This has another 20 years in it depening how you like your wines.  

It's not too often I get the chance to drink a Bordeaux from my birth year - 1958, so this was quite a treat.  Pale ruby/brown in color to the rim.  The nose took a few minutes to sort itself out.  It is clearly old and past its prime but it was good and had plenty of life left.  The nose had dust, some mushrooms but also some cigar box and even some cherries.  Maybe I imagined it, but also some classic soy sauce notes.  On the palate, this is soft but reasonably in balance.  No tannins.  Some cherry fruit layered with damp earth/tobacco.  Good finish.  I won't give this an official grade b

Purple in color, ruby at the rim.  This is very tight and in fact, much less forgiving than bottles tried a year and two years ago.  The nose is dusty with black cherries.  On the palate, cassis and medium tannins.  It opens a bit with air, but at this point, it should probably sleep for five years.  If you must open one, give it 8+ hours of air.  There is a nice wine in there once it opens up, but a much higher potential.