Color is homogenous claret. Leather is strong in the first nose,
and then it gives out some citrus touches, that would sound untypical for a
red. In time fresh greens like parsley and mint becomes intense as it is aged
12 months in new and used French barrels. The wine is medium bodied and I am
very surprised how it is labeled as “Extra Full-Bodied” on Alko website. Then I
realized a difference between what I bought and what is presented on the
website (You will read down here very soon). Tannins create a certain dryness
on the tongue. Animal touches are there and also it is a bit rustic wine. The
tannins are likely abducting the fruit and harming the balance. It´s dry final has
a moderate length. A good table wine it is which could be better in time with
the softening of tannins.
The awards of the previous vintages and the reputation of the
producer, as well as the price growing like a sweet fat baby on parallel to
these issues, makes it interesting and you become expectant, then you buy it,
then you see it is a good wine, it is a very good wine, but not as surprising
as you expected. Quite much “not fitting” all those notes described on sites
which are selling the wine.
So, about the website I told up there in the note; when u search
the wine on Alko website right now in January 2013, you will realize that the
info on the site belongs to 2009 recolte. Also, alcohol is specified as 14.5%
on the bottle even though it is 14.3% on producer´s website.
Even
it is called “Montes Alpha Cabernet Sauvignon” it also has a 10 percent of
Merlot. But still a good wine to understand the tannic structure of CabS. It is
better to decant minimum 15-20 minutes and I think it will fit well with
casserole dishes or barbecued meats with fatty-spicy sauces. Harsh tannins
would oppose cheese negatively, I think. As one of the mistakes in wine-food pairing,
people drink strong tannic red wines with cheese types with their
sourish-bitter mimics on their “getting-ugly” faces, with fake words “oohh,
immh very nice ,oohh delicious” which first of all they do not believe. So this
is not a wine to drink with cheese. Okay, this is a topic for another article
so I stop to make more longer this overextended tasting note. Apologies.
84/100 Price: 17.89€/75cl/January 2013
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