It’s time for more wine fun! This week our sommelier du jour, er, du week, is . . .
Ass For A Hat! I assume his taste in wine far exceeds his taste in hats. 
Here is the link to Week Three’s thread.
As always, any and all Dopers are welcome to participate. A4AH will (hopefully) pick a wine by next Thursday, after which we all go buy it, drink it, and come back and talk about it.
I’m not sure if that’s a safe assumption. I guess we’ll find out.
I managed to beat back my desire to pick a Bordeaux or Rhone Valley wine, mainly out of availability concerns. I just wasn’t sure that what I could find here in Minneapolis would be the same as Dopers in other parts of the country. The negociant wines of the Rhone Valley (like Chapoutier or Guigal) are fairly omnipresent, but the ones I’ve had in our price range I’ve found to be fairly dull.
So, how about California Cabernet? Liberty School 2004 Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon. I found this bottle for $17 at France 44. I’ve never tried this wine, so I don’t have anything to say by way of an introduction, other than Opal will probably want to skip this week as well.
A side topic this week can be wine ratings. I’ll freely admit that I let the number beside the bottle affect my decision on this week’s wine. To what degree do the ratings affect your buying decisions? Do you trust the number on the clipping that the store has placed beside bottle? Do you find any of the publications more trustworthy than others? Do you trust the opinion of the staff at your local store more than the national publications?
Friend Ass for A Hat,
I don’t think I have ever noticed any at the places I buy wine. I don’t read any publications either. I just push blindly ahead trying whatever wine strikes my curiosity. Sometimes I have had wine shop employees suggest things while selling me a bottle “If you like this wine, may I suggest that wine…” I have found some bottles I have really liked following these suggestions.
This has been one of the reasons I have enjoyed our SDMB wine club so far. I have an uneducated palate, and a limited knowledge of the various wines out there, but I am willing to learn.
I picked up a bottle for 13 bucks at Bottle Barn yesterday after work.
I’ll give it a go tomorrow evening.
As for ratings. Numbers affect me a little bit. Mostly at BevMo, if not almost exclusively at BevMo (where I do about 1/4 of all of my wine purchases.) I tend to trust Wilfred Wong’s palate, so if there’s something that looks like a good deal with a good score, I’ll usually give it a shot. I read Wine Spectator, and while the numbers are a bit helpful in picking out real bargains, I tend to get more out of the actual write ups or descriptions.
I also use medals as a good way to find wines I might be interested in. I’m usually eager to try the sweepstakes winners and gold medal winners of most of the local awards (Sonoma County Harvest Fair and many of the larger CA County Fairs), SF Chronicle, SF Int’l, Riverside, and a few other big competitions.
Looking forward to this week’s pick.
We can talk about that wine without picking up a bottle. Its the secondary brand for Caymus - Brainiac4’s favorite bottle. It lacks the complexity of the Caymus - but the Caymus is $70 a bottle. Its a darn good “under $20” bottle, though.
It’s not Caymus’ second label anymore. Hasn’t been for about 10 years. It’s owned by a company in Paso Robles - Treana.
Thanks for the update.
Thanks for the heads-up. I went all retro and got a bottle of the stuff from Week One 
Yummy.
I picked up a bottle of this for $15 (trying to de-lurk to be a member of this wine club since I love wine but am not very good at describing it) and have been drinking it for a couple of evenings. I’ve found that it becomes more and more interesting the longer I’ve had the bottle open and I’ve enjoyed it a lot. I don’t yet have the palate to describe the flavors in the wine but can say that this one is my favorite over the last three choices.
As far as ratings go, I’m definitely swayed by ratings that are posted as I’m more likely to purchase a wine if it has a high rating even if I know nothing about the individual or magazine rating it. However, I agree with psycat90’s comment that the descriptions help me a lot more then the rating. If something extra is posted about the wine, I know someone has taken notice in that particular wine and it will make me look at it as well.
I’ve also found that recommendations at my local wine store (Applejack) have been very good. So if I’m there to purchase an extra special bottle, I try to seek them out for a good recommendation.
I finally found a bottle of this wonderful wine this evening. It has a large, bold taste. It will always have a place in my wine rack. I will pick up another bottle or two tomorrow to serve with dinner Sunday. I can just imagine how this will compliment a great steak.
OK, on my second glass, but took my notes after the first few sips.
My initial notes:
Bright, deep, ruby red in color.
Nose - Cherry, boysenberry, cinnamon, and a little eucalyptus. The aromas had me bracing myself for something fairly sweet - a ‘fruit bomb.’
Taste - Tart cherry, tangy plum, oak. A little thin and just really tart fruit tastes to me. Yet there were tannins in there somewhere.
The wine kind of ‘bounced’ around in my mouth. I wrote down ‘confused’ which was the impression it left on me. I think there might be just the tiniest hint of residual sugar, but it’s hard for me to pick it out, since the wine feels like it’s just jostling around.
This second glass has had a chance to slightly open up, but it’s still quite tart. The tannins are kind of hitting my mouth in all the right spots at the right time now, making it ‘less confused.’
Has a long finish, some strawberry, cranberry, and red delicious apple skin flavors lingering around.
It’s definitely not a bad wine, I think I just prefer my Cab a little more lush and refined, less tart.
Good pick, good price. And I have a soft spot in my heart for Paso Robles.
I say this with all due respect to A4aH, and I’m glad he didn’t say “This is absolutely my favorite wine ever!” . . .
The best I can say is “it didn’t suck.” I can’t say if I found it too tannin-y for my uneducated palate or just too tart, but there was a taste in it that I didn’t enjoy. And I’m glad to see psycat say “confused,” which I wouldn’t have the vocabulary to say or the expertise to specifically identify, but might describe my experience with it as well, at a much less sophisticated level. I had trouble finding any independent notes through the tartness. (Keep in mind that I’m not good at picking notes/elements out anyway.)
It’s not like I’m throwing it down the sink; I’ll finish it over the next few days with a pasta dish I’m planning. But I probably wouldn’t buy it again. I’ll be very interested to read others’ opinions, since my novice status makes me mistrust myself and my judgment.
Oh, regarding ratings: I admit that unless someone is raving about a wine or I am planning a very special occasion, I am a cost-conscious wine buyer. So I do use the ratings but in conjunction with price – I find them helpful in deciding what wine is likely a good value for the money. I don’t really pay a lot of attention to reviews. I know for hardcore oenophiles they are very helpful but I just can’t seem to get past the pretentiousness of the language. One thing I like about the wine Dopers is that those who have sophisticated palates are still using plain English to describe their experiences. Though maybe they’re just dumbing the discussion down for the rest of us.
Frien Jodi,
Don’t mistrust yourself. If you find a wine you like, buy more of it and enjoy drinking it. Don’t let your novice state (which I share) interfere with your enjoyment.
I have a hard time with the language myself (and I don’t think I have a sophisticated palate, but I am definitely in the process of training it.) I don’t have a problem with writing notes for myself, but vocalizing them just seems so hard for me, mostly because I think it does sound pretentious. I know it’s not meant to be, but I think it can sometimes comes off that way. I’m enjoying being a wine student, I don’t ever want to be a wine snob.
I’m actually thankful for these threads; while there are other avenues online for me to get used to sharing my tasting notes, I think here, where I feel less anonymous, is good for me. I also definitely love reading the opinions and recommendations of everyone. And more wine to drink is never a bad thing. 
Oh and I completely agree with longhair, don’t mistrust yourself. You don’t have to have a wine-trained palate to know whether you like a wine or not. Taste is entirely subjective, all the fancy words and descriptions in the world can’t make a wine taste any better to you personally.
I had it with steak last night & it did very well.
My opinion of this wine is mixed. If found quite a bit to like about it, but like psycat90, it’s not quite what I’m looking for in cabernet. It had the big fruit I expected, but the character was a little too bright for me. Cherry was the major fruit flavor that I picked up. I prefer the darker notes in my cabernet. Good call on the apple skin in the finish, BTW. I’m having my day 2 glass right now and am definitely detecting that.
All in all, I’m definitely thumbs-up on the wine, though I probably won’t be buying any more it, especially at the $17 I paid for this one.
It’s been a busy week, so I didn’t get out to pick up another bottle of this. Going from memory, I found it to be decent but not great. As others have posted, it’s not at all sweet. I’d call it kind of “unfinished” which is how I often find myself describing inexpensive wines – in comparison to the more fully-developed flavors of a Caymus, the flavor complex just doesn’t seem to have the same degree of harmonious complexity.
My taste impressions were of cherry/blackberry and tobacco. In retrospect, I was unduly influenced by thinking it was the other brand of Caymus, which I really like.