To all Best Winers,
In the California wine world, restaurants rule.
A top restaurant group can get darn near anything it wants from a top California winery. And when that restaurant group is Thomas Keller’s, and when the restaurant is his world-famous bistro, Bouchon, it can really get whatever it wants.
The Table Cabernet Sauvignon was conceived out of the demand by some of the country’s finest restaurant groups to have a serious bottle of wine to pour by-the-glass for their discerning, knowledgeable clients. A wine that could be hand-crafted by the Keller team to meet the exacting specifications of their wine programs.
This meant that winemaker Sashi Moorman (of Evening Land, Piedrasassi, Sandhi and Stolpman winemaking fame) worked hand-in-hand (palate-to-palate?) with the team at Keller’s group to create a bottle of Cabernet that would make the cut, be real drinkable, match up with their food and meet the sky-high expectations of the America’s greatest chef.
That’s what we’re selling you today.
The 2009 The Table Cabernet Sauvignon carries a ‘humble’ California appellation but don’t let that fool you. It is actually a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (75%), Cabernet Franc (10%), Merlot (10%) and Petit Verdot (5%) sourced primarily from the Napa Valley.
A healthy dollop of those vineyards are Napa rock stars; Crocker, Somerston and Beckstoffer to name a few. Most of the juice in the bottle is Napa, with some top Lake County fruit thrown in for the ‘juiciness’ factor. The wine was 100% barrel-aged in older French oak (nice sommelier touch there) for 18 months before being bottled unfined and unfiltered.
The result? One of the Best $25 Cabernets we’ve ever sold for $10! This wine is in such a soft, accessible, juicy place right now, packed with dark cherry fruit and savory herb and spice tones. There’s absolutely no intrusion of vanilla flavors thanks to the use of those wonderfully neutral French barrels. It’s almost a touch ‘culty’ in its smooth delivery of generous Cabernet fruit flavors and rounded tannins.
We’re drinking the heck out of this wine, as we should. After all, it was prepared by Keller’s team and star winemaker Sashi Moorman to be, well, really drinkable. We were enjoying this one last night next to some $50+ ‘serious’ red wines and this one most certainly held its own in that group, though it didn’t take itself as seriously.
Need a House Cabernet? Look no further. The Table should be on your table, as soon as humanly possible…
Kyle Meyer and Tristen Beamon, Proprietors, BestWinesOnline.com
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