This past Sunday's dinner and PPV evening at Dawson's presented an opportunity to conduct an impromptu wine-tasting between two California Reds--in one corner was Black Fox, a 2005 California Cabernet Sauvignon from Morganville, Ca. (price point $9.99). In the opposite corner was Clos LaChance, a 2002 Central Coast Merlot from San Martin, Ca. (priced at $19.99). While no scoring took place during this contest, it was clear neither wine would have achieved outstanding marks on our standard 1-5 scale used. The Black Fox at first came across as unripened grapes and hot, but when paired with food, recovered nicely. The Clos LaChance was extremely fruity, with an immediate taste of heavy cranberry and grape juice. It was much easier to handle to me in standalone conditions, but when coupled with food, blending poorly and became rather heavy to handle. In fact, Dawson equated the taste of the twenty dollar combination Merlot/Cabernet to having a taste resembling cheap six or seven dollar wine. It was evident after a couple glasses of each wine the Black Fox, both for it's price and ability to pair up fairly well with food, proved to be the preferred wine (or lesser of two evils, depending on how you look at it).
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3 comments:
Excellent review JP. Just goes to show that price does not always indicate quality.
Thanks for the feedback, Ant. I'm glad I've had a chance to start trying out some of the California wines I'm collected in recent times--it helps in the decision- making process what to repurchase and what to chalk up to experience.
I agree with JP. The wines, although technically from different grapes were difficult to differentiate becuase the Merlot was actually a blend and included about 20% Cabernet. All in all the Black Fox was decent for its price and could be onsidered a decent every day table wine.
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