A Cabernet Sauvignon from Idaho

One of our early and tightly held philosophies about wine is that a good wine is any wine that you like. It is very easy – especially if you are new to wine -- to get swept up by professionals and scores and flowery adjectives and wait for someone else to tell you whether or not you should like a particular wine. But the fact is, it doesn’t really matter if you like the cheap stuff or the sweet stuff or the bottle-capped stuff or the boutique stuff or the status stuff. It doesn’t really matter if you like to dump a packet of sugar in your wine or pour it over ice cubes. If you like it, own it. They are your taste buds; make ‘em happy.

Having said all that, your Two Wine Nuts feel there is definite value in reading reviews and getting recommendations. When you find someone who likes stuff you like, they can be a great resource for new wine discoveries and adventures. Hopefully, if you have found yourself agreeing with our reviews here you have come back for more. And if you have disagreed, we understand if you moved on to others’ opinions.

This all came to mind as we recently sipped a wine highly recommended by a friend. It turns out we like different stuff. And that’s just fine.

We have had some very tasty Idaho wines in the past. Sadly, it was long before we were taking notes. Nevertheless, when a friend recommended a 2003 Sawtooth Cabernet Sauvignon from Idaho, we were eager to give it a try.

This Cabernet had something of an artificial fruit smell, along the lines of a grape Popsicle. Taste-wise, it was a good, basic Cabernet Sauvignon. But it was a little tangy and a little bitter and had an abrupt finish. The taste just sort of disappeared as soon as the wine did. To its credit, the wine got fruitier and fuller as we ate it with our steak dinner. But for $12.99 (at Fred Meyer), we felt we could do better. At $6-$8 we would be more enthusiastic. So if we find Sawtooth on sale, we’ll happily buy some and share it with our friend.