2016 Cayuse Camaspelo wine review: Oh what a bad wine this is

 There is one thing to like in this wine: It has olive notes. But it's still a fairly poor wine, because you need much more than olives to make a good wine.  Please don't waste your money on this. Parker and Suckling gave it 94 points, but at just six years it hasn't aged well. I suspect if those critics were on truth serum, they'd have trouble scoring it in the 80s now. It's actually difficult to drink. It is so stridently different from any well-made Bordeaux blend that it's almost painful. By straining a bit, I could give it a "C." Meaning, 75 points. Save your money! There are THOUSANDS of good wines costing much less. Why pay into the Emperor's Got No Clothes? 

In fairness, Christophe Baron makes some very good wines, but you have to hunt for them. It's a poor strategy to just buy everything he makes. I finally wised up to that wisdom, and backed off-I only buy the superb Bionic Frog now. That is the ONLY wine made by Mr. Baron that performs well on the resale market. 

I say this too often perhaps, but it's essential information: Anyone can overpay for wine. It takes no skill. Do you really want to play in a game where everyone pretends that a wine is good, when it sucks? I wish I could've sold this bottle in the auction market, but the buyers understand that this is not a very good wine, so I had to drink it. Shame on me.

Two more examples why you should be VERY cautious before paying, say, $25 or more for a bottle of wine:

Jane made a fabulous veggie lasagna, with Beyond Meat crumble that is a very good faux ground beef. The sauce (both red and Bechemel) was great, and there were Ricotta, Cottage, and Parmesan cheeses to provide more mouthfeel. It was really spectacular, and makes me wonder how I can be the one with 10% Italian genes, but not her.

Anyway, I pulled first one expensive wine, and then another, and both came up short and it was embarrassing to sort of fail her wonderful dish with subpar wines. The first was Maryhill 2016 Barbera (Proprietor's Reserve)-my note says I liked it at the winery last summer and paid $33. I held it only 10 months in perfect storage, but tonight it was bad: no fruit on the palate, and maybe a bitter coffee note at the beginning of the finish. Not good.  A Barbera should be lively. Maybe the wine at 3.6 years since harvest is simply tired out (likely), but in that case I'm sorry they sold it, or maybe they should've sold it with a label "drink by Sept 2019" or whatever. (I used to add "drink by" labels on all my wines, and I'm sorry I don't still do it--it's difficult as a winemaker to know when your wine will finally head downhill. One of my customers forgot about one of my Cayuga white wines, I think from 2017, and recently found it and opened it and told me it was great. Whew. I would've said drink it within about 1.5 years.)

So, when Jane said she really didn't like that wine, I said let me grab a different one, and I came back with a Walla Walla Vintners 2016 Sangiovese, which I bought at wholesale from one of my distys. WWV has a great track record, but sometime in the past few years Gordy and Miles sold out (finally retired) and somewhere in there the winemaker changed. Not sure if that's involved here, but this wine is also disappointing: No fruit on the palate, and there's a tiny tiny bit of Brett on the palate, and when that's the only note you can discern in a wine, something is very, very wrong. This one's about $20 at retail (and I paid a bit less), but DUDES! You can find much better Sangios at the grocery store, for almost half that price.

I say again, it's easy to overpay for wine. Anyone can do it; it takes no skill at all. What is difficult is finding great wines at lower prices, and there are many to be found. And, worse, there is VERY LITTLE correlation between a wine's price and its quality. If you pay more than about $25 for a bottle of wine, the excess is just about all "excess profit" (meaning, extra profit on top of what is already a reasonable profit). Why would you buy into a system where you pay $80 for a wine that isn't better than another wine costing $20? How smart is it to buy the $80 bottle? If I were trying to impress somebody, I'd serve them a great $20 bottle, and they'd be amazed, and then I'd say, "Hey! Now I have $60 in my pocket, so what should we do with it?"

Finally, please let me say that these are both very good wineries. I am not meaning to impugne all their wines-that would be foolish. I am saying that almost no winery in the world, which charges high prices, is consistently worth those higher prices. Some are--I would never shirk an offered Latour, Lafite, DRC, Petrus, Pichon-Lalande, Margaux, Eschezaux. But if your label isn't on that list, be cautious about paying more than $25 for it.

Oh, My! 2016 Wines of Substance 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon - Review

Oh holy smokes! Opened this with slow-smoked BBQ Pork that I made 2 days ago, and WOW! So glad I did!

It is very rich and luscious, with the expected black currant, but also blackberry, olives, and earth. Seamless.  Teriffic fruit notes. I would expect this to cost about $40-$70, not $20! So sad this is my only bottle (got it while I was a member of the wine club).


So I looked up the pro reviews on this one, and they agree. I love the line: "Just buy it and pretend you paid three times the price!"

Jeb Dunnuck 93
"The largest production cuvée, the 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon was vinified in tank before being pressed to barrel where it went through malo. Aged 13 months in barrels, its vibrant purple color is followed by a terrific bouquet of blueberries, cassis, scorched earth, and spice. Deep, rich, full-bodied, and beautifully balanced, this is the real deal, ladies and gentlemen, and it's a no-brainer purchase. Just pretend you paid three times the price."

Wine Advocate 90
"Amazingly, there are 125,000 cases of the value-priced 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon. The wine offers up classic aromas of crushed cassis, loamy soil and pencil lead. On the palate, it's medium-bodied, layered and flavorful, with chewy but ripe tannins and succulent balancing acids, concluding with good length. Considering the scale of this cuvée and the pittance it commands, it's a remarkable achievement."

James Suckling 92
"The is a firm and linear red with currants, blackberries and hints of chocolate. Medium to full body, firm and velvety, chewy tannins and a juicy finish. Real cabernet at a real price. Drink or enjoy."

Wine Spectator 90
"Dark and spirited, with appealing blackberry, black olive and smoked anise flavors that build toward big but polished tannins. Drink now through 2024."

Wine Enthusiast 90
"The aromas are compelling, with notes of fresh herb, black currant, black raspberry and black cherry, showing a pleasing sense of purity. The flavors are soft and pure, with sleek black-fruit notes lingering on the finish. Firm tannins back it up. It’s a fruitful expression of the variety and a superb value. "

Charles Smith sold his winery for an amount so huge you wouldn't believe it. What a wine! He deserves everything he achieved.

Orin Swift 2016 "Fragile" Rose - Can't live up to its hype

It was with a sense of excitement that I opened this bottle, after several customers told me that "you can never go wrong with anything made under this label." It's about $17-$19 retail, though I found it on a great sale and was able to sell it for just $10.

It's a deeply-colored rose. I am NOT one who likes only faintly-tinged rose wines. Why penalize a wine for having pretty color? Why turn away from a bigger-bodied rose (which a deeper color suggests may be present)? My Epona rose wine looks much like this one. It's a pretty bottle and label, which present well.

Nose: Not much going on. Sad. Our noses can distinguish thousands of different sensations, whereas our tongues can manage only six. Why winemakers don't pay attention to extracting a great bouquet, is beyond me.

Palate: Huh. A little disappointing. This wine is fine--it's got fruit and good acid. Certainly not a revelation or anything like that. There is a fairly pronounced bitter orange peel note that is too strong for me. The wine's definitely drinkable, and it's fine, but not quite super-enjoyable. Give me the $10 Barnard Griffin Rose of Sangio (a repeat Double Platinum winner up here in the NW) anyday over this. Give me an Epona rose (also $10) over this.

Rose sales climbing fast! Why not try Olequa's Brilliant 2016 Foch Rose?

Thanks to Steve for turning me towards this article.

I also found this one.

Some salient points:
1. Rose wine sales are headed sharply up.
2. In France, more rose is drunk now than whites!
3. Men are drinking more and more rose.

This is great news. All colors of wine need to be enjoyed by all winelovers!

I am particularly enjoying Olequa's Rose of Marechal Foch. It has a brilliant clarity, a bright and inviting deep red color, and loads and loads of jam-packed strawberries, cherries, and cranberries, riding on a strong acid backbone. This is a wine for summer! Serve it chilled. Keep some for Thanksgiving! because this would be awesome awesome awesome with turkey. Don't worry any more about gerrymandering Pinot Noir or Merlot or Gewurz or Riesling into the Turkey Tango--just use this wine! I promise. If you want to buy this one from me, it's just $13 with more flavor in each bottle than you have ever had! Email me at kenton.erwin@gmail.com . Epona Wines (virtual wine retailer)...

(image credit to Google stock images)