The Desert Wine Guy - 2012 Columbia Crest H3 Cabernet Sauvignon

2012 Columbia Crest H3 Cabernet Sauvignon

I'm sure we have all read review after review about a certain wine claiming how great it is only to try that wine and completely dislike it. That folks is indeed what happened to me with this particular wine. The wine that is in discussion here is the 2012 Columbia Crest H3 (Horse Heaven Hills) Cabernet Sauvignon. It seems that everywhere you look you see reviews that this particular wine is amazing, fascinating, incredible, value alert and the accolades go on and on. Having now reviewed this wine, all of this has really made me question some of the validity of some of those reviewers. While there are a fair share of non professional reviewers who see nothing special about this wine for the most part this wine is being pushed....hard. I'm sorry but I just don't know how else to explain the fact that I myself have spoken to people and have had them comment online and agree with me in saying that the wine was simply....O.K, nothing special and that's it. Now, I want to add by the way that Columbia Crest DOES make another 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon and for the same price, that is the Grand Estates. I actually did a nice review of that particular wine

Map Of Horse Heaven AVA

(http://desertwineguy.blogspot.com/2015/08/the-desert-wine-guy-2012-columbia-crest.html) in which I rated the wine at 91 points. By the way the same people who love the H3 and rate it great also rate the Grand Estates great, I think that is rather funny. I am really putting myself out there on this one. Today I am going against the grain big time with this review. When I bought this wine It was originally for a giveaway on my wine Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/DesertWineGuy) for a lucky fan. I had read all the reviews and thought this would be something nice that my fans would love to win. While I was in the middle of the review I realized that I wouldn't give this wine away to anyone for anything, I had a problem now. While doing my review of the other Columbia Crest Grand Estates Cabernet is when I finally decided to give that wine away instead.  Well anyway let's go ahead and get started on this review on a very uninspiring wine.

Horse Heaven WInery

     So...lets see here, where do I begin? To begin with the 2012 Columbia Crest H3 Cabernet Sauvignon  sells for around $10 almost everywhere. This wine is made up of 94% Cabernet, 4% Merlot and 2% Syrah with an Alcohol level listed at 14%. Columbia Crest was founded in 1983 in the Washington State Columbia Valley which is the largest growing region in that state. The Horse Heaven area is also actually an AVA in Washington State. The winery hit the news big time when a very popular wine magazine named their 2005 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon "Wine of The Year". Now here they are with the release of our review wine.

Inside The Columbia Crest Winery

    So here we go. In the glass the wine sat a medium Strawberry in color. I thought this was interesting but I figured lets continue and see if the other pre-tasteing notes look improved. On the nose this wine was peppery and loaded with Black Cherry and Cocoa. Not too bad a start for the wine I figured so on we go. In my mouth the wine was of heavy Blackberry edging towards an almost bitterness with notes of  Prune. This was followed by a deep Black Cherry and Cranberry. I have to tell you this wine was VERY fruit forward and there were things that didn't quite fit correctly, the wine tasted disjointed and lacking that certain something that would justify good ratings let alone great ratings. From what I was tasting to this point the wine was so so at best. While continuing to taste the wine I couldn't help but notice that there was slightly bitter / tart notes present. Yes there was a sort of smokiness combined with pepper and Cassis but the wine was still what I could only describe as almost having a sort of sweetness to it. This wine completely put me off. All the notes except for the Black Cherry and Plum were just over the top and those two were very close to falling into that category. I kept this wine opened while I sampled it for about 2 hours and it did not open up or change in the slightest bit. Looking at my notes I see that I actually put a couple of notes down twice which I do only when they keep showing themselves in a bad way. These two notes I am referring to are "prunish" and "Tart Cranberry". These two notes stood out clearly and in a very harsh, disruptive way.
   That's it everyone, that is my opinion like it or not of the 2012 Columbia Crest H3 Cabernet Sauvignon. I realize that I have gone the complete opposite direction of the overwhelming majority of reviewers. I realize that I am going to stand out here but as the old saying goes, I call um like I see um. You might feel differently about this wine but like I always say, if your tastes usually align with mine than I would stay away from this wine. There are plenty of wines that cost the same if not less that blow this out of the water. Do yourself a favor ans stay away from this wine folks, you won't regret following my recommendation. On The Desert Wine Guy Rating Scale I put this wine at 85 points.





                                                                                                                   The Desert Wine Guy



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The Desert Wine Guy - 2015 Charleston Peak Pinot Grigio

   What do you think of when I say 105 degree average heat daily, Cactus, Sagebrush & Tumbleweeds? If you are thinking of death by heat stroke, Lizards running through Ghost Towns than guys, I totally understand (if I didn't already live in the Desert) where you are coming and  would agree. What would you say if I told you that in the 105 degree heat among those Sagebrush, Tumbleweeds, Cactus and Lizards there is also wine as well as wine grapes?  The area that I am talking about is the small town of Pahrump Nevada which is located around 45 minutes to a hour North of Las Vegas. I have done reviews of the winery's in Pahrump in the past with these reviews presenting mixed results as far as the quality of wine they make. Today I am back for another review of one of the wines made in Pahrump, this time at the Pahrump Valley Winery (http://www.pahrumpwinery.com/) in particular. Today's wine up for review is the 2015 Charleston Peak Pinot Grigio and comes in at 12.5% Alcohol. To begin with I'll be the first to admit that I do not know much about this particular varietal so let's do a little discovering and learning.

   The varietal is known as Pinot Grigio in America and also when it is on the sharper and more acidic or dry side or Pinot (Pine Cone) Gris (Gray) which is usually reserved for the Pinot Grigio wines that are more on the fruitier and less acidic side side such as French submissions. Pinot Grigio is the second most popular white wine in America. By the way, although there are some people who tend to think that this varietal originated in the country of Italy, the reality is that the varietal actually originated in France. The varietal when referred to as Pinot Grigio is also know for having a characteristic of a type of "oily" note on the Palette and a note that I tasted in this wine as well. This note is from what is known as Malolactic Fermentation (MLF) and produces Malic Acid and is in all actuality produced by winemakers adding a special bacteria known as Oenococcusoeni that eats sharp acid and "poops (yeah I know) out smooth acids. Basically Pinot Grigio and Pinot Gris are the same varietal only they go through a different process and taste different. The grapes for this varietal are red (blue-gray hue) but the grapes can also sometimes have a Brownish Pink to Black or even White appearance, the actual color of the wine however is White due to the makers of the wine not using the grape skins in the wine making process. The varietal also is believed to be a mutation of the Pinot Noir grape as Pinot Grigio has an almost identical DNA to Pinoit Noir which is where the theory of it being a mutation derives from. The grape is normally grown best in cooler climates which makes the successful growing of these grapes in the Desert of Southern Nevada a true challenge to say the least. The flavors of the varietal range from the ripe tropical fruit of melon and Mango to Botrytis (a necrotrophic fungus ) influenced notes. So, now that we have described for you a little about the wines characteristics, how does this wine grown in the Desert hold up to these standards? O.K so now that we know a little (lot) about the varietal, let's go ahead and move on to this particular interpretation of the varietal.

   I first want to start with this wines appearance in my glass which in this case is on the very light Golden side. Beginning here, I have to say that the wine actually looks brilliant as the Las Vegas sun reflected off of it in my glass. Continuing now onto the Palette of this wine. Initially upon tasting this wine it came across as being on the slightly sweeter side and I thought that here is another wine grown in a hot climate that is obviously influenced heavily by that heat. Very quickly the sweeter notes disappeared and brought out notes of melon and spice which I found surprising for some reason. A wonderfully balanced acidity also showed itself that was not over powering was also presented to my Palette and I have to admit I thoroughly enjoyed it. Pear and Honey Dew were presented as well and also with the identical ripeness and in proportion to one another as well. The hint of acidity by the way was detected only on the finish and was not harsh at all in on mouth.  the sweetness that i tasted was not overpowering in any way so do not let that scare you off from this wine. this particular note was more of a fresh fruit note 

  Folks, let me go ahead and wrap this wine up for you. As you can probably tell by reading the characteristics of the varietal in my opening paragraphs, this wine I believe truly lived up to the standards of it's varietal. This wine in actuality fell in the range of Pinot Gris and lived up to the varietal standard rather nicely. Guys, I really enjoyed this wine and am very comfortable in giving it 90 points on The desert Wine Guy rating scale.

                             The Desert Wine Guy

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The Desert Wine Guy - 2013 Carnivor Cabernet Sauvignon - The Name Might Roar But The Wine Does Not

  So today you are in for a very short review. A short review simply because there is nothing to really say about the 2013 Carnivor Cabernet Sauvignon at least nothing that the Vineyard or Winery wants to hear that is. Here is another wine that I purchased at Costco. I actually purchased this while I was buying the awesome 2012 Franciscan Estate Cabernet Sauvignon. This is also one of the 69 different wine labels that Ernest & Julio Gallo own. At 14% Alcohol this Cabernet is nothing at all to speak of. While the wine has an aggressive, very serious looking label making us think of the era of Knights riding around on Horses and the name "Carnivor" this wine is in reality anything but aggressive. This wine has about three different notes that I picked up and they are dark Black Berry, Bing Cherry and Sweet Plum. While that may sometimes get a wine by in this day and age if done correctly, it didn't this time. On the pour this wine started off nicely with an extremely inky appearance, an appearance that this is some deep Red with Tannins and Oak. An appearance that this red stands above the average Cabernet Sauvignon but you would be disappointed. One other impressive item (and the last) was that while my wine glass had a small amount of wine (about the size that a Winery would pour for a tasting) there was no way to see thru to the bottom of the glass. The wine appeared to be an almost Black ink as it sat there waiting to be drunk. I also noticed as I took a small drop onto my finger that was dripping from the bottle that the wine was as really as Red as Blood.

Yeah I know that's creepy but it's true. I was hoping for a very serious and aggressive wine here.  Look at the picture below to see what what the wine looked like when I poured the remainder of it down the sink.

This wine is also a wine that is like ink in as far as it stained my teeth and everything else it touched. It was almost like there actually was ink in the wine. In total I ended up giving this wine about a three hours in the bottle to open up and it remained consistently the same, there were no changes.  Here is a very seriously looking, moderately overbearing Black Berry dominate wine. There are notes of Bing Cherry and Alcohol on the finish that I don't care for because the Bing Cherry brings a sense of overdone sweetness along with it. The Alcohol at the end I of course found pretty unpleasant and a further put off. There is the ever so slightest hint of Black Pepper but not enough to make any difference here. Fairly fruity along the dark fruit side of things this wine is like thousands of other fruit forward, sugary sweet Cabernet's on the market and this one as is the others was not worth my time or yours.
   On  The Desert Wine Guy Rating Scale I give this wine 83 (Not Worth Mentioning, Not Recommended) points.

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