• Tasting
• Sauvignon Blanc
• Chardonnay
• Pinot Noir
• Zinfandel
• Merlot
• Syrah
• Dolcetto
• Cab. Sauvignon

Introduction

Paul Moser’s fascination with wine dates back to three years spent in France as a student in the early seventies. He has been making wine in California’s Napa Valley since 1982. His work has appeared under several different labels including Ehlers Grove, Stratford, and Cartlidge & Browne, all of which are the results of his longtime partnership with Tony Cartlidge.

Several years ago Paul was tasting and discussing a red wine with colleague and fellow winemaker Don Spirlock. As they swirled, sniffed and spat, Don paused, looking up as he searched for the right words. “Do you remember that old armchair in your flat in San Francisco and the smell when you first sat down in it? This wine has a touch of that.” Paul smiled, nodded and the term “old armchair” entered the descriptor dictionary.

This story emphasizes one of the key things to remember about tasting wine – develop your own personal language. The average wine drinker may never develop the subtleties of sensory categorization and memory that the experts possess, but all you really need is curiosity about wine and time taken to explore it. This small book is just a place to begin…

Wines / Tasting Wine: Cabernet Sauvignon

Even if you don’t like it, Cabernet Sauvignon is hard to ignore: if other wines speak to you in conversational tones, Cabernet uses a bullhorn. Not that it isn’t graceful; it’s got that too. And because of its great ability to adapt to varying climates around the world, it is probably the world’s best-known red grape variety. When grape varieties have egos, Cabernet will be Donald Trump.

The reason for its huge dose of personality, beyond the qualities of its aroma and flavor, is its intensity. You can find pallid, thin Cabernets, but these are rarely connected to the real thing.

The skin of the Cabernet grape has a lot to do with it. Thicker and tougher than most other varieties, it contains loads of pigments, tannins and other related solids which give the wine its rich color, as well as the wallop it most often packs on the palate. And if that weren’t enough, the actual size of the Cabernet grape is smaller than most other varieties, so the ratio of juice to solids is low enough to let the solids have an even greater say in the final product.

In cooler climates, Cabernet Sauvignon will tend toward greener flavors, such as bell pepper and green beans; the same is true of Cabernet grown in deep soils, which encourage its more vegetal tendencies.

In warmer areas, the red fruits, such as black currant, cherry, blackberry, etc., will dominate. But if it gets too warm where you planted your Cabernet, you’ll find it just kind of gives up its birthright and becomes a coarse, simple, uninteresting quaff that in no time will have you looking around for an iced tea or a fruit juice.

Usually grape growers don’t favor varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon, which flower relatively late, and thus ripen later than most, but Cabernet even has this rap beaten. Growers like it because its thick skins and loose bunches make it naturally resistant to late-season mold and rot. (This is as opposed to grapes with thin skins which grow in tight bunches – real breeding grounds for rot which will spread like wildfire after even a brief unseasonable rain late in the growing season.) Growers would like to see Cabernet produce a little more, it’s true: an average of 3-4 tons per acre is not that exciting. But then, with Cabernet Sauvignon, the excitement isn’t in the quantity, it’s in the quality. No one argues with that.

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