Here’s a professional picture of the bottle!

(don’t pay attention to me in the reflection)

Bottle description on the back

This Cabernet Sauvignon blends the craftsmanship of California winemaking with the Southern tradition of Bourbon Whiskey barrel aging. The cool climate of our coastal vineyards imparts the wine with deep flavors of black cherry and blackberry. Select lots are then aged in Bourbon Whiskey barrels, delivering rich nuances of vanilla, brown sugar and subtle toasted oak when added to the blend.

Description

This bottle is a 2022. It’s a bourbon barrel aged cabernet sauvignon, so there will be hints of vanilla to smooth out the high tannin of this grape. It was $15 at the store near me, and contains 14.5% alcohol. The appearance of the wine itself is a dark ruby color, slightly clear, and with plenty of depth.

Smell

I don’t have the greatest sense of smell, but with that I could still smell it at a medium distance, with the glass at a distance of around halfway up my chest. There’s a light intensity with the smell, not overwhelming, but a strong, nutty/vanilla aroma immediately as it hits my nose. The smell of dark fruits is very prevalent, like black cherry and blackberry. It definitely has an smoky, vanilla, oaked aroma coming from the bourbon barrel. There’s a bit of a mocha there as well, but it’s not as prevalent. The bottle also says brown sugar, which I did somewhat notice, but it was very light.

Taste

As it hits my tongue I can immediately tell it’s smooth. The first taste comes from the black cherry and blackberry. There’s a bit of the mocha and brown sugar taste at this point as well. The taste is medium intensity at first, which means that this is well balanced for a high alcohol high tannin wine. The texture is a bit tart from that tannin, but it’s well masked by the smoky, nutty, vanilla aftertaste.

Analysis

This is a very well balanced wine. The strong aspects of the wine such as the tannin content and high alcohol content with black cherry and mocha flavors are well balanced with the vanilla, smoky, nutty flavors that combat it. The flavor is short after swallowing as well. It’s high in acid, but very well balanced. With a wine like this I would expect to need to pair it with something like cheese to combat the strong, intense flavor that comes from the bitter aspects, but I found that I enjoyed it a lot by itself.

Conclusion

I typically do not enjoy cabernet sauvignon because of the bitterness and tart feeling in my mouth after each sip. This wine would definitely be one of my favorite ones for this grape. The harsh aspects of it are mitigated by aging it in an oak barrel to infuse it with the vanilla flavor. I would give this a 9/10, and I will be buying it again.