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Wine Spectator ranks California Cabs
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2006 Cabs score high points
Wine Spectator unveiled its top 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon wines from California this month with some surprises.
Schrader, from Napa Valley, scored an awesome 99 points (out of 100) for two Kalon vineyard selections. Calling the wine “an incredible mix of opulence and restraint with seductive currant and blackberry fruit,” the wine showed “complexity and refined on the finish.”
Another Schrader selection from a nearby plot was praised as “a masterpiece that captures currant and blackberry fruit at the zenith of ripeness.” Two other of the winery’s Cabs scored 96 and 95 points.
The wines are priced at $300 (1.5 liters) and $125 (750 ml) respectively.
About 600 wines were reviewed and range in price from $325 (Bryant Family) to $9 (Fetzer).
Not all the selections were in the rarefied air of $100+. The reviews at some suggestions for top value Cabs too.
Coho (Napa Valley) scored 95 points and accolades of “ultra-rich, complex and concentrated”. It retails for $40.
Four Napa cabs scored 88 points: Beaulieu “early currant and sage, anise and dark berry fruit” ($27); Chappellet “firm and intense with mineral dried currant spice” ($29); and Robert Mondavi, “elegant, mixing ripe currant and plumb flavors” ($28). The Hess Collection from Mendocino-Lake - Napa counties, “harmonious, supple and graceful” rounded out the group ($17).
More top value wines with points over 87 and priced under $20 included Gallo Family, Sonoma County ($15); Louis M. Martini, Sonoma County ($17); Aquinas, Napa Valley ($15); Greg Norman, North Coast ($15); Rancho Zabaco, California ($12); Lyeth, Sonoma ($11); Bogle, California ($11) and noted for easy-drinking and spice notes is Fetzer, California ($9).
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