Superior Wine Alert!

All wines featured here each day are great. When they are even better, we issue these special alerts, to bring the really special ones to your attention

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Mission Codename: Operation Library Liberty

Operative: Agent Red

Objective: Infiltrate Wine Spies Operative favorite Adobe Road Winery, raid their library and retrieve an exclusive Cabernet Sauvignon

Mission Status: Accomplished!

Current Winery: Adobe Road

Wine Subject: 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon

Winemaker: Franc Dusak

Backgrounder: Cabernet Sauvignon, long the favorite varietal from Napa Valley and certainly among the most noble grapes. But did you know that the unique climate of the Alexander Valley in the northern part of Sonoma County also provide the idea conditions to grow Cabernet Sauvignon? Today’s wine is a fantastic Cabernet Sauvignon from a brilliant winegrowing region

Wine Spies Tasting Profile:

Look – Dark burgundy in color with deep concentration of color. the wine have a lovely dark heart and at the edges, shows a beautiful purple-to-pink. When swirled, this wine moves quickly and settles fast. When it does settle, it leaves behind thin legs that run down the glass at varying speeds. Some legs take forever to emerge and then they absolutely crawl down the glass!

Smell – Deeply layered with smoky dark fruit of plum, blackberry and black cherry, followed by chocolate, light mushroom, earth, leather and oak

Feel – Light and medium round up front, very round on the mid-palate, and then the wines velvet tannins grip the edges of the tongue and pucker the lips

Taste – Dark fruit starts this wine off, but is fast replaced by a mid-tongue brightness, making it an excellent food wine. The wine is both deliciously sweet with just a hint of tartness. The flavors present here include black currant, cherry, soft currant, mixed berries, mild spice and toasty oak

Finish – The tender mouthfeel of this wine and the dark fruits & earthy flavors linger for a long time – with a slight dryness that makes your mouth water

Conclusion – Another fantastic wine from a Wine Spies favorite, this wine is finely balanced and brightly delicious. With great fruit, this six year-old drinks fresh and still somewhat youthful, but the the sophistication that a few years of bottle age can bring. Our Operatives love Adobe Road wines, but they also love those wine that we make available that have a few years of aging on them. This treat is ready to enjoy now, and will likely continue to progress beautifully for a years to come.

Supplementary Tasting Notes, provided by Agent Noir (aka Kerry Winslow) of GrapeLive.com:

“2002 Adobe Road Cabernet Sauvignon Sonoma County (Alexander Valley): This is an impressive drinking wine with lots of rich black fruits and nicely formed smooth tannins. There is boysenberry, plum and sweet currants on the palate and touches of spice and subtle toasted oak notes filling this Cabernet out and giving it balance. This wine is ready to enjoy now and is very pleasing with a long fruit driven finish. Not a wine that you have to really think about or wait on, plus it is a bargain, so drink up.”
-Agent Noir

Mission Report:

We introduced you to Adobe’s excellent 2003 earlier this year and loved it so much that I was sent back to taste their 2002. Taste I did, and I fell in love with the wine. When I found out, however, that the wine was a Library selection, my heart sank. Library wines are usually reserved for winery personnel or close personal friends of the winery. You know me, though, I can be a pitbull when I want a killer wine.

All amped up and ready to use all of my clever spy tactics, I put on my best disguise and went to the winery.

Once inside, I sidled up to the bar. My usual contact was manning the tasting room, but I wasn’t worried, I knew my disguise would effectively shield my identity.

In order to gain her trust, I ordered up a tasting flight. She poured, and I picked up the glass, swirling it and gazing at it before taking a deep sniff – and accidentally inaling some wine through my nostrils!

I sneezed, hard, and my false beard and dark eyeglasses flew off, landing behind the bar. When I looked up, I saw the smiling face of my host. “Hi, Agent Red,” She said. “I knew it was you all along, but wasn’t going to ruin the fun, yous or mine!”

Blushing, I got right to the point. A few minutes and some humble begging later, and I secured a handful of cases of today’s brilliant wine.

Enjoy!!