Quaffing

NV Cul-de-Sac Cabernet Sauvignon

Tasting Notes:

Eyes: clear, med- ruby
Nose: clean, med intensity, youthful, dried cherry, confectionary (turkish delight), cola, bubble gum
Mouth: dry, med- body, low acidity, med- length, med+ alcohol, low intensity, low tannin, slight tartness, dilute
All in all: Do not want.

Haha, after having come together for a small meeting at school (UBC Wine Tasting Club  collaborated with le Club Français UBC), I did a bit of wine research and writing blog posts and what have you. You know, instead of doing homework. So, after, instead of going home from school like a good boy, I caved in on my own desires and stopped by a different branch of the private liquor store I work at. I ended up spending a ridiculous amount of time there, and left with 6 bottles even though I planned to maybe buy 1 or 2 at the most. I bought this one in particular because the workers (co-workers, technically) at the store were all curious about it. Why not take one for the team? I don’t deserve legitimate wine on a Wednesday night where I’ve done no real work.

This wine is laughably bad. Seriously? If your wine ends up being a pale ruby colour, why even bother keeping “Cabernet Sauvignon” on the label? For marketing, of course, and some poor little consumer is going to buy this, thinking it’s legitimate Cab Sauv, while instead, it tastes like sugar water with a red crayon dipped in it. It has long length though, if “length” means “weird burning sensation at the back of your throat even though this is only 12.5% alcohol”. This is the kind of shit you could get hooked on if you were one of those kids who couldn’t wait until the cherry jello settled in the fridge and you couldn’t help but eat the malformed solid-liquid sugar hybrid. It’s not bad for an alcoholic drink – it’s just not proper Californian Cabernet Sauvignon. In fact, it’s legitimately the opposite of Cabernet Sauvignon, and, if you served this to me blind, I would’ve thought this was some Beaujolais Nouveau that would benefit from some chilling. In which case, I’d be glad that I bought this anyways, because the Bojo Novo was 10 bucks more (I’ve never had one…). So technically this is good. I think I’m going to chill this and pretend it’s Beaujolais Nouveau. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a large proportion (if not all) of carbonic maceration. Use this shit for sangria. Everything Wine posts some bullshit generic Cabernet Sauvignon blurb about it which is hilariously false, but I have a weird sense of relief knowing that the people who work there haven’t actually tried it. Although it’s cheap (for a wine sold in BC, that is), there are actually decent and more concentrated wines for 10 dollars. This just isn’t one of them.

The motto on the front is:

“Friendship. Laughter. Skinned knees. Badminton on the lawn. BBQs on the deck. At Cul-de-Sac Wine Company, we raise a glass to good neighbours and good wines.”

If you bring this shit to my damn BBQ, there will be no laughing, you will no longer be my friend, and I will trip you in your stupid hipster sailor shorts so you very well will skin your damn knees. And no badminton for your sorry ass. I will not “raise my glass to a good neighbour”: I will raise my badminton racket and beat you with it.

Okay, that was harsh. The most I’ll do is give you a judging look and make fun of you. We can still play badminton on the lawn.

Producer: Cul-de-Sac
Designation: 
American
Region:
USA
Sub-Region:
California
Variety:
 Cabernet Sauvignon
ABV:
 12.5% (!!!?)
Vintage:
 NV
Tasted:
 November 14, 2012
Price:
 $10

7 Comments

  1. How is this in your chain? I’ll tell you why: some buyer got horny over the label, origin, clear varietal marketing, and general neutrality and un-offensiveness. Oh, and the price.

    Good review. This is a price-point product, and it’s rubbish.

    I would never bring this to your bbq.

  2. I gently laughed out loud – maybe more of a chuckle – when I got the the triple exclamation point after ABV.

    Cassandra told me about your blog and I figured it would help me learn a thing or two about the wines we have at the shop. The bonus is that I enjoy your writing! 🙂

    1. Woahhhh totally didn’t even see your comment until now 😀 Thanks!

      See you Wednesday 😛 I’m excited

    1. Haha! I bought this in British Columbia, Canada, where $10 (after tax) is considered just a smidgen above the bottom of the barrel (in terms of price) and where $3 bottles of wine literally don’t exist.

Comments are closed.

%d bloggers like this: