Vintage/Year: 2005
Winery/Name: Columbia Crest - Two Vines
Region/Country: Washington, USA
Varietal: Cabernet Sauvignon
ALC: 13.5% ALC by Vol

If there is one thing I have learned about wines, it is that you can't tell a wine by its label. Some labels are written by marketing people, others by poets, some by wine makers and lastly the rest are not written by any one at all - they are blank and void of description.

What I wind up doing is not reading the labels at all, but just sitting down with the wine - one on one - and I try to get to know it. A sniff, a smell, a small taste, holding it up to the light to see clarity, color, depth. A swirl, another sniff, a sip.

What comes from all of this is I have begun to discern flavors that I had not noticed before. I am still not good at telling spice in a wine, or vanilla, smoke or chocolate. However, I do notice different jams like strawberry, raspberry, Concord grape. I am tasting some citrus flavors and noting other flavors in different wines.

Tasting the 2005 Columbia Crest Cabernet Sauvignon, I taste some berry or maybe it is cherry. The color is purple and softens to deep red. The wine is clear and you can hold it up to the light and see through it. It has an oak flavor but the oak taste is not really noticeable. This is probably called a hint of oak.

I would say that this wine is typical of most good Cabernet Sauvignons that I have had in the past four or five months. The wine is easy on the palate and I did not notice any acid or back acid taste after swallowing. It is a good value wine, and at $7.49, is well worth the price.

Columbia Crest winery has the same philosophy as Fetzer in that the winery tries to maintain the same wine from year to year so there are no surprises. A cab is a Cab is a Cab. I do not know what the Wine Spectator rates this wine, but I would say that the wine could be consumed now and even cellared in your wine cellar for a couple of years without any special care. The same wine from the 2004 vintage at around $8 was rated an 86, so it is a value wine selection. The 2005 should come in at about this rating, I would guess. Buy some now, tuck it away in your cellar and see what you think of it in 2009 or 2010. It should be fine even after a couple of years in the cellar.


2005 Columbia Crest Front label


2005 Columbia Crest Back label

Until next time, let me know what is on your mind, and how you are doing, O.K.?

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Jim Fortune - the Bella Online Wine Guy


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