Friday, September 18, 2015

Daglia Canyon Napa Valley Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon 2013

Daglia Canyon Napa Valley Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon 2013

The 2013 Napa Valley Cabernets are starting to arrive in and through distribution to your/our local wine shops. It was a ideal growing season and the wines should be very good. As one of our favorite producers said about an earlier similar vintage, 'if you can't produce good wine in this vintage you should be doing something different'. In great vintage years such as this, we consumers can benefit from the simple point that even the lesser wines, or second or lower labels of the key producers are potentially great wines. In such vintages, the difference between the top label and lesser labels often is miniscule, such that there is great value in the lesser labels.

So it was that I went into a wine shop to pick up a bottle of wine for dinner on the road, I could pick from lesser labels or modest price points and realistically seek a nice enjoyable wine. In the last couple days, I have had such a two other such wines that were a benchmark for tonight's selection. My benchmark for tonight's selection was the 2013 B-Side Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. On the recommendation of two different wine advisors at Total Wine in suburban Minneapolis, I chose from several similar wine recommendations. From those choices I picked this wine. Full disclosure, this is a 'Winery Direct' where this is sourced directly from the producer by this large multi-regional wine superstore retailer.

Having selected this wine, I sought and received a consensus recommendation on carry out dinner, ribs from Rib Shack in nearby suburban Burnley, MN, halfway between the wineshop and my hotel.

Daglia Canyon Napa Valley Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon 2013

Crafted by winemaker David Elliot, this is not a wimpy wine for the feint of heart in any respect! This demands some food, hearty cheese or dark chocolate. As such it was great with the grilled bbq ribs I picked up carry out to enjoy with this back at the hotel. Dark inky blackish garnet colored, full bodied, tightly wound concentrated blackberry fruit overtaken by and accented by a layer of creosote and leather giving way to firm gripping tannins on the long finish. 

RM 89 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1984240