Arbios Cellars 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon

The Winery:  Arbios Cellars
The Wine:  2004 Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
The Price:  $30 at Jack Cellars

This wine review is a bit bittersweet for me.  It is the last wine I will review that came from Jack Cellars.  Sadly, Jack closed his doors last weekend.

Arbios has a second label, Praxis, whose 2008 Pinot Noir I recently reviewed and found to be quite good.  So I'm quite pleased to have an opportunity to taste the Arbios. 

The grapes for this wine come from the Alexander Valley, in northern Sonoma County. The wine is made from 100% Cabernet Sauvignon grapes.

The Arbios was stopped with a natural cork and decanted an hour before tasting.  The wine is dark purple in color with a bit of a cocoa hue to it.

The wine has aromas of black cherry, vanilla, chocolate and prune.

This is a superb wine!  It has cherry base blended with flavors of blackberry, vanilla, cocoa and caramel.  The flavors are well balanced and the wine is absolutely velvety smooth.  I highly recommend the Arbios.  It is a truly great wine!

Firesteed 2006 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir

The Winery: Firesteed
The Wine: 2006 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir
The Price: $22.99 at Safeway

Firesteed is an Oregon winery that has been producing wine since 1992. It appears that 2006 was the last year they made the Willamette Valley Pinot Noir, but they are currently producing their Oregon Pinot Noir. If it's not abundantly obvious, the Willamette Valley Pinot Noir is made from grapes from Oregon's Willamette Valley. The Oregon Pinot Noir is made from grapes from throughout Oregon, including the Willamette, Umpqua, Rogue and Walla Walla valleys.

The wine bottle was stopped with a natural cork and decanted 45 minutes before sampling.

The wine is dark purple in color with a brown cast to it.  It has aromas of blackberries, blueberries, cassis and vanilla.

This is a pretty disappointing Pinot Noir.  The flavor is harsh, with a strong alcohol flavor.  Buried underneath the alcohol flavor lingers flavors of blackberry and cherry.  But you really have to search long and hard to find those flavors.  I'd really expect a 4 year old wine to have been far less harsh than this.

Skip this one. Blech.

Ferrari-Carano 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon

The Winery:  Ferrari-Carano
The Wine:  2007 Cabernet Sauvignon
The Price:  $18.99 at QFC (marked down from $34.99)

Ferrari-Carano is a California winery.  The Cabernet Sauvignon is from grapes grown in the Alexander Valley.  The wine is a blend of 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 14% Syrah and 11% Petit Verdot.

The bottle was stopped with a natural cork and decanted an hour before tasting.

The wine is very deep red in color and has aromas of cassis, black cherry and vanilla.   The aromas are very deep and rich; very pronounced an velvety.

The wine has extremely smooth flavors of black cherry and cassis, with a subtle hint of licorice.  This is an absolutely fabulous Cabernet Sauvignon.  I highly recommend this one!  It is nothing short of fantastic!

Sokol Blosser 2009 Willamette Valley Müller-Thurgau

The Winery:  Sokol Blosser
The Wine:  2009 Willamette Valley Müller-Thurgau
The Price:  $22 on their website

I would venture to guess that many of you have never heard of, let alone sampled, Müller-Thurgau (pronounced MYOO-ler TOOR-gow).  Having lived most of my life in Oregon, I am quite familiar with it.  Müller-Thurgau grapes are generally used in low-end German wines, such as Liebfraumilch.  But there are a handful of vineyards in Oregon that grow the grapes, and make a pretty good wine.  In the dozen years that I've lived in Seattle, I've never seen a bottle of Müller-Thurgau in a store, so it is apparently not widely exported. 

I was surprised when I saw Sokol Blosser was offering Müller-Thurgau, so I asked them about it.  They told me that they only make it in years that the grapes are extraordinarily good, which was the case in 2009.  They produced 300 cases of the Müller-Thurgau in 2009.

The wine bottle was sealed with a natural cork.  One thing that I appreciate about Sokol Blosser is that they don't put wrapper over the cork.  They just put a circular label on top of the cork itself.  It makes for easy opening and less waste.

The wine is a very pale straw color.  It has aromas of peach, pineapple and melon.

This is far and away the best Müller-Thurgau I have ever tasted!  It has flavors of peach, pear and a honey.  It is deliciously bright and refreshing.  It's sweet without being too sweet.  I highly recommend trying this one!