Depending on where you live, you may have a few different places to buy your wine and thats a great thing for the consumer as far as prices and choices go. When I lived back in Las Vegas I would usually go to Total Wine but there was also a place named Lees Liquor that while not as big in name or size, was no slouch either. Yes, there were small liquor stores around but I was never one to go to a "Liquor Store", call me a snob. No matter where we live though, there are wines that we simply cannot get locally or wines that are sold only at the winery (V. Sattui) itself for whatever reason. As for purchasing a wine online, that has always been an issue for me personally because while the prices may at times be cheaper then a local store, by the time you add on shipping, you may as well buy the wine straight from the winery itself, at least from them you can be assured that the storage and overall handling of the wine was on point. I guess the bottom line here is that competition is a good thing even when it comes to wine as it lowers overall prices when companies compete against one another for our business. Alright, I feel better now, let's get into this wine :)
Today I am reviewing the 2013 Black Stallion, Cabernet Sauvignon - "Limited Release" from the Napa Valley. The wine retails between $55-$60 and comes in at a rather high, 14.8% alcohol. This wine is made up of 90% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Malbec as well as a 1% blend of the grape varietals of Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc & Malbec. The wine was aged in 33% new French Oak for 20 months as well.
I want to talk a bit now about the Black Stallion Winery itself. The winery is located on what is known as the Silverado Trail and was originally horse stables and known at the time as the Silverado Horse Stables until it closed in the1990's. In May of 2010 two Brothers, Terrance and Michael Maglich sold the winery they had developed on the property to the Indelicato Family who had an already existing winery that they had begun in 1935. Today, the Indelicato Family produces over 15 different labels including the Z. Alexander Brown label and are one of the largest by case production wine producers in the USA. Aside from the 10 Acres of vines which are planted all around the winery which are Cabernet Sauvignon, they also source most of their grapes from the Napa Valley as well as neighboring Sonoma County. As far as the wineries releases go, this is their second-best series with juice coming from Estate grapes or from single vineyards.
Alright, now it is time to look at the label on this review wine because it is certainly worth talking about. Striking! That really is the only word to use in relation to the bottles label. I could move on now but before I do, I want to let you know why I use the word "striking" first. I just got done reviewing another red wine which had a dark label layed against a dark background (the wine) which was similar to this one and I just did not care for it. This label however, is different as the gold lettering and the fonts chosen provide the absolute perfect sort of clash but without being visually offensive. This clash instead just elevates certain words against a sort of dark gray label. What really adds to setting this label off is the edged outlining of gold used to highlight the label. Major props go out to the designer of the label for a job well done. As I said when I started off this paragraph, Striking!
Now, it is time to get closer to the actual wine itself by moving to the wines Bouquet. I have to tell you first that I can't wait to taste this wine as I have high expectations for it. First up here on the nose is blueberry combined with a bit of Allspice, Cocoa and a bit of an alcohol note as well. Topping the wines bouquet off is some nice cinnamon and raisin as well. I am also getting a perceived plushness of sorts that I hope the wine can transfer over to the palate.What came as a shock to me is that I expected at least some of that 33% new French Oak to come through here but unfortunately, that was not happening.
Now it is almost time to finally get down to the tasting end of this review. But before I do, I just want to very quickly give my opinion on what is really important in a wine tasting. I believe that the enjoyment of a wine is a bit of a combination involving the initial presentation which includes with and begins with the label on the bottle, the visual presentation of the wine itself, the bouquet of the wine and last but certainly not least, the palate presentation. What really wins in the end however is that palate presentation because if everything else is impressive but the wine itself sucks, what good is it all? Okay, let's talk palate now.
As it is on the Bouquet so it is on the palate, at least when it comes to that French Oak at least. This wine is surprisingly showing none of that 33% new French Oak here. To say that I am very surprised would be an understatement, where is it? I am not saying that a red wine should be dominated by oak but having a bit presented both on the nose and here on the palate would iindeed be nice. Now of course, this could be good or it could be bad, all depending on what your desires are in a Cabernet Sauvignon. As I continue on here, the wine has a juiciness that it opens up with, a plushness that did indeed also transfer over from the bouquet and lies in the background of the palate presentation. A light yet sufficient Black Pepper note exposes itself and goes so very nicely with these other Notes and together they act like best friends who have grown up together all their lives. As I continue on here, a black cherry note that has forgotten (thankfully) to bring its sugar along joins into the mix and plays along rather nicely with the other notes.
Adding to all of this is a bit of slightly over the top richness that I think is an issue for me. There are some tannins and they are gritty which is perfect here and goes nicely with what the wine is wanting to present. Licorice, ya want some? If you want that note, you have it and it comes in around Mid-Palate. This licorice is tasted but thankfully doesn't make an attempt to fight to come upfront which is a good thing because it is presented well to begin with. The Cocoa I got on the Nose translates over here but is also not attempting to dominate anything, instead, it is more than content to sit towards the finish where it belongs in this particular wine. As for any acidity that might be present in this wine, there is a hair bit of it but really nothing that makes an impact on the overall Palate. Alright guys, here it comes. Unfortunately, throwing all of these notes and therefore the wine itself to the background is a good bit of jamminess and I really do not care for jamminess in my wines, period! This jamminess (as usual) presents itself as sugar or sweetness and that note I simply cannot deal with and will not put up with, I expect more from Black Stallion. There is one more issue that I had with this wine and that issue is, this is a "hot" wine meaning there is an alcohol burn to it. That issue was eventually resolved and I will leave the soultion for the final paragraph. This "hot" issue along with that jamminess really put a damper on the wine for me unfortunetly. Since we are discussing negatives of the wine, I want to add in that the wine also presented a very strong note of blueberry here and it was just too fruity and also assisted in that jamminess, yuck.
As I start off this final paragraph the first thing and the most important thing that I certainly want to tell you is that you must Decant this wine. This is the solution that I found in order to tone down that alcohol burn the wine presented. I would seriously give the wine at least a couple of hours to both develope and cool down. Due to the wine being so lush on the Palate and having to deal with the high alcohol percentage, I drank a couple of glasses but had to put the wine aside for the day. I sealed the bottle and came back the next day, I am thankful that I did because I were to rate the wine based on what I tasted in those two glasses, it would have been a disaster. On The Desert Wine Guy rating scale, I am giving this wine 91 points as I do not prefer this type of a juicy, jammy style of Cabernet Sauvignon. I am much more into a real Cab that is able and willing to present Notes of leather, graphite, Earth, tannins and be even slightly on the astringent side. All of these Notes are absent from this wine which I feel is not good and caused the wine to be lacking the punch of what I expect from the winery itself and the Napa Valley in general. Unfortunetly, this wine loves its over the top jammy plushness. I'm really sorry guys as I have much love and respect for the Black Stallion Winery but I just cannot condone the new-fangled Generation Z wines.
The Desert Wine Guy
www.desertwineguy.blogspot.com/
www.facebook.com/DesertWineGuy?fref=nf
https://twitter.com/DesertWineGuyLV
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgCUb3w1n2S_UGU2yYRkFYQ/videos
https://www.brighteon.com/channel/thedesertwineguy
