Well folks I am back again to tell you about a very special wine that also just so happens to temporally stretch my promise of reviewing wines for the middle class as I don't consider $56 for a bottle of wine to be something that the Middle Class wine drinker will go for on a regular basis. Now, there might very well be some of my readers out there who might argue the point that this wine is NOT for the Middle Class but I beg to differ. Whatever your opinion is on the matter you will need to put those opinions aside as right now I need to tell you about a blockbuster of a wine. Today's wine being reviewed is the 2014 Franciscan Magnificat from Franciscan Estate (
https://www.franciscan.com/) in Oakville, California. I purchased today's review wine for $56 directly from the Winery itself which I don't normally do because they are either much higher in price then the local stores and the shipping charges are out of this world. In this instance the Franciscan Estate winery had the great deal of $1 shipping and so I could not resist. By the way as a side note, after checking my local Smiths / Kroger grocery store I found that they had this wine for $59. Today's wine that I will be reviewing and discussing is a Red blend consisting of 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 17% Merlot, 5% Malbec, 2% Petit Verdot & 1% Cabernet Franc and comes it at a slightly higher than average Alcohol percentage of 14.5%. This wine sat for 20 months in 70% new French Oak.
Because I am very visual as all wine reviewers I think should be, I always try to make it a point to pay attention to and bring attention to a wines label when I believe it is worth making mention of. The label of this particular wine I believe is worth mentioning and I thought was classic Franciscan. True, it could be considered rather simplistic however I believe that the fonts used as well as the placement of the words themselves scream simplistic class and Superior quality. I don't know what it is about a well thought out and designed wine bottle but for me it seems to convey the perception of there being an outstanding wine inside of the bottle. This "perception" of course does not always turn out to be the case in reality but it is indeed a wonderful start and a wonderful unspoken promise.
Let's move now past the bottle and onto what is in the bottle, the wine itself. Let me now discuss the Bouquet for this promising wine. Starting right off the bat are luscious notes of Cedar/Cherry wood as well as awesome dark fruit notes that came flowing straight out of the bottle and into my glass, then to my nose. Wow is about all I can say at this moment as I need a few seconds to sit back and simply enjoy the wonderful Bouquet. Okay, I'm back now so let's continue with what I got from this wines Bouquet. More than a hint of dark Cocoa also fluttered from inside the glass and drifted up to my nose giving me visions of a Summer day while Mrs. Desert Wine Girl does some cake baking in the Kitchen. Speaking of Baking, waves of Dark Baking Spice and Caramel are escaping the glass to my nose as well, I am totally impressed to say the least by this wines initial presentation. Lastly here I am not only sensing these notes but enjoying them almost as if I were drinking the wine itself. A truly serious and luscious note of Molasses is also presenting itself. In all I am sensing terrific complexity on the nose and an absolutely screaming promise of terrifically superior complexity that I am really hoping translates right on over to the Palette. The French Oak is evident on the nose as well and together I will let you know that I could (almost) sit here all day and just keep the glass to my nose enjoying what this wine is confidently showing off. Right now there are visions in my head of an old fashioned Napa Valley interpretation of the Cabernet Sauvignon varietal with all it's deep and dark notes topped off with some serious Cassis and Tannins to punctuate the fact that this wine continues to keep me hanging on for a blowout wine.
Moving onto the Palette now let's see what else I can discover and what I can tell you about when it comes to this wine. I absolutely must begin with the Oak note that was present on the nose and is indeed translating itself to the Palette as well. If there were any doubts initially that this wine spent 20 months in 70% new French Oak the first sip of this wine will clear that up as it is without a doubt very evident but in no way offensive or over done, you are simply going to love it. On top of this is the smooth notes of both Smoke and Leather that only deepens this wines Palette presentation and helps move it quickly towards being a potentially very complex and powerful wine. Moving on now I want to point out the note of a delicious, Black Plum that meshes incredibly well with the other Palette note. This Black Plum comes barreling it's way through to your Palette and is smooth and without flaw and not astringent, Black Currant is nicely presented in abundance as well here and more than helps in creating a
semi "chewy" Red that simply screams to be tasted as well as Cellared for a few years for those of you who are not into such a robust red as this one is. By the way, I will discuss Cellaring later on in the conclusion of this review. Putting the wine in my mouth instantly made it water and I discovered that the wine is not shy on the Palette at all and I could not help but to want more of it, now. Folks this wine is impressing me to the max. Juicy, semi dark, semi fruit forward, deep Cocoa with spice. Speaking of spice, there is a Black Pepper spice that combines wonderfully with the
chewiness of the wine and creates an absolute succulence to this wine
that is nothing short of amazing. How about there being a note of boysenberry that stands out with the
other notes and hold it's own very well against the other notes.
We are dealing here with a wine
that is strictly about business and that does not understand the meaning of the word "play". This wine knows it was created to impress at an important Dinner or function and not at some average party where there might might not be serious red wine drinkers. Okay, if you folks are thinking that I am done telling you the enormous pleasure that I experienced in drinking this wine you would be wrong. Here is a wine that as I said includes a Leather note that I believe is working hard at being one of the dominating masterminds behind the chewiness and succulence that I have been talking so wonderfully about. That smoky note only helps to develop this wine into an astonishing example of what a Napa Valley red should be. Well, I am tired of typing guys but as they saw, the show must go on (and there is so much more to say). There is a note of Menthol that assists in bringing the Palette alive even further. There is a deep and dark Cherry that is unlike any cherry you have probably ever tasted, not overly sugary or sweet and it presents itself in such a way that you will be amazed. No excessive sugar or sweetness as dark cherry can put forth at times. Throughout the wine there is no expression of bitterness at all but there is more then polished expression of that Black Pepper spice which I mentioned earlier and that never leaves us, it elevates the wine on the Palette
to a place that I believe also helps in bringing out the incredible Tannins that this wine shows off and is part of the wines way of screaming to
be tasted, right now. I love a Red that presents itself with serious Tannins, Let's talk about these Tannins for a minute shall we? If I were to describe the Tannins in this wine I would do it this way. Not shy, not timid or mellow, but bold, straight forward and unabashedly in your face. In my opinion this amount of Tannins assist greatly in helping to build a wines structure and doing so tells me the seriousness of a wine so lets discuss structure for a minute. There are plenty of wines that have character and SOME structure and
those wines certainly are appreciated, enjoyed and respected by the industry, they are
also happen to rate very well with me. To me, while you certainly can develop a Red wine that has structure without a moderate amount of these Tannins, there is always in my humble opinion something missing when you have a red wine that doesn't have them in decent amounts. For me I feel the need to usually avoid the terms "outstanding", "spectacular", "landmark" or even "ground breaking" when it comes to these types of wine. For me this wine demands all of these words, expressions and more.
I am going to wrap this review up now because I believe that I have expressed to you enough that this wine is indeed ......."top shelf" so to speak. I truly haven't been so impressed with a red wine since I reviewed the 2011 Peju Cabernet Sauvignon (
https://desertwineguy.blogspot.com/2014/05/2011-peju-cabernet-sauvignon.html) and I rated that wine at 97 points. What an absolutely incredible wine that was. With all this being said let's get to the conclusion of this review. First I want to follow up on a promise that I made in the beginning of this review concerning Cellaring of a wine.
Ever since my first trip to Napa
I have been hooked on deep, earthy reds that exhibit a good amount of Tannins / Cassis, I absolutely love them. Yes, there must be more to a wine as these notes alone do not make a great wine (but they sure do help). I also noticed that
they are only in pretty serious wines, wines that are meant to compete and be Cellared if you would like.
Now, lots of people shy away from a wine that exhibits this type of
boldness and fail to realize that it is one of the signs that a wine can be successfully aged. This wine is without a doubt at that level and I believe can be aged nicely for at least ten more years. Now there are people who like me who will insist on enjoying that type of wine right now and will buy at least one to Cellar and that I believe is smart thinking.
One last thing and something that is truly bothering me. I have read reviews of this wine that said that this wine is "fruit forward" and "shy". Folks, let me tell you this straight out in case you haven't already figured it out. There is no shyness to this wine as for the "fruit Forwardness" comments, yes, there is a bit of "fruit forwardness" and the wine makes no bones about it. I have tasted, and at times liked "fruit forward" wines and this folks is not what I would consider to be one of those wines. Perhaps these reviewers were tasting another year or another wine or perhaps their Taste Buds were off that particular day, I am not sure. What I will definitely tell you is that on The Desert Wine Guy rating scale I am giving this wine a remarkable 96 points. Winemaker Janet-Meyers is obviously at the top of her game.
P.S - As I stated earlier in the beginning of the review I usually don't make it a habit of purchasing anything winery direct as they are always much higher priced than a local store. Having said that I want to point out that my local Trader Joe's here in Las Vegas is selling this wine for $39, a huge savings from the $56 that I spent at the wineries website.
The Desert Wine Guy
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