Smoking Hot and Full Bodied: 2004 Sebastiani Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

Ahh-yes, can life get any better than that? It's a hot So-Cal day reaching up into the eighties, time to bust out the board shorts and head to the pool. Yep you read that right the eighties, welcome to So-Cal, this how we do it. Heading out to do some swimming today and catch some sun, ahh don't be jealous, just a perk of living here in sunny San Diego.

Mean while back at the review. I fired up the grill the other night and got it smoking hot. I have had a juicy Tri-Tip marinating all day, ready to hit the grill with extreme prejudice. I planned to side-dish it, with broiled red potatoes, bathed an EVO spice glaze and an ear of white corn on the cob. So here's the match up a Sebastiani 2004 Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 14.4% ALC, 14 months on American and French Oak before being bottled, paired wonderfully against some grain-fed expertly grilled Tri-Tip, wow a match made in heaven. I'm talking serious perfection here.

From the first splash to enter my glass to last drop from the bottle, the wine delivered an awe inspiring performance, in a word stellar. I know, I know you think that's over the top, but for $24 it deserved every bit of the word, stellar. In the glass this wine was an opaque brooding storm of violet hue, now that's what I call extraction baby! This cab delivered so much palate coating dark fruit flavors and aromas, with subtle mocha nuances on the long and lingering finish I had to check the price again. I seen a few articles touting the 2004 vintage as being an excellent in year for Cabernet Sauvignon in Napa and Sonoma. Looking around the web I see I picked up this wine $10.00 to $15.00 less than advertised prices, I love when that happens, a another big QPR winner, in my opinion.

Now the folks at WS thought a little less of it than I did and scored it 88 points, which is considered very good a wine with special qualities. But personally I scored this beauty a whopping 91 points, that's if I were in the business of scoring wines, which I am not [I work in wine-sales by day and blog by night]. On the other hand, I do know what I like and I challenge anyone to grab a bottle of this wine, give it a good swirl and see if you give this Cabernet anything less than 90 points. I look forward to hearing back about your experiences. Until next time Cheers Everyone!