A Special Occasion Cab and Corkage Fees

Earlier this month, your Two Wine Nuts had a special occasion to celebrate so we pulled out a “special occasion” bottle of 1992 Silver Oak Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley and headed to a favorite restaurant.

Yes, you are allowed to bring your own wine to a restaurant! But doing so can often start a ritual with the wait staff that we have only learned through experience.

First, be aware that you will likely pay what is called a “Corkage Fee.” This is usually $10-$15 and it supposedly covers the service cost of the waiter opening and pouring your wine, the use of the wine glasses, and the fact that you aren’t buying any of the wine in the restaurant’s cellar. So suddenly your “free bottle” isn’t really free anymore. Unless you share.

Some wait staff is more subtle than others, but all that we have encountered when bringing our own bottle have made it clear that they would love to try a sip of our wine. The first time this happened, one of your Wine Nuts was rather offended. Eventually the waitress’s hints got embarrassing and we finally told her to get a glass just so that we could get back to enjoying our meal. We shared just a sip’s worth and tipped accordingly.

With some experience, though, we have come to expect that we will be sharing at least an ounce or so of our wine with our wait staff. The negotiation usually starts with us declining a wine list since we have brought our own bottle. This is followed by a discussion about what we have brought. At some point between this and when the wine is being poured, the waiter or waitress will start showing enthusiasm and curiosity about the wine, asking questions, making hypothetical comparisons to other known wines, etc. At this point we offer that if they would like to get a glass, we would be happy to let them sample it.

This is where you can decide whether or not you want to pay the corkage fee. A small pour (one ounce or so) and you will likely still see that extra $10-$15 added to your bill. A bigger pour – one that allows at least two full sips or perhaps a little sharing with others in the kitchen – could very well lead to the corkage fee being waived. Of course, this is entirely dependent on the wait staff, the restaurant, the “specialness” of the wine, and the camaraderie you have managed to establish with the wait staff over the course of the meal.

So with all that, how was our special occasion Cabernet? Pretty darn great!

Silver Oak is known for one thing and one thing only: Cabernet Sauvignon. They have two wineries in California – one in the Napa Valley and one a little farther north in Alexander Valley. The wine is known as big and well-crafted and is priced accordingly. Although we bought the 1992 Napa Valley Cab probably 10 years ago for about $50, it is now selling online for about $130ish. So yes, our corkage fee was waived.

And was it worth $130?? Probably not. But it was very, very good. Silver Oak builds its wines to age and this one seemed to have aged rather nicely. Honestly, though, we suspect we may have waited a year or two too long to open it and we didn’t give the wine nearly enough time to breathe when we finally did.

The wine definitely changed over the hour and a half or so that we ate dinner. It got fruiter and more full. But unlike a younger Cabernet Sauvignon, this 16 year old Cab was extraordinarily smooth from the very first sip, lacking the tannins that make your mouth pucker. It was less fruity and more subtle than a typical California-style Cabernet, making it taste and feel more like a French version. Overall, it was a great wine for the price we originally paid for it. And our next “special occasion” wine will probably be decanted.

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.

The Original Pizza Wine

Years ago, before Two Buck Chuck, your Two Wine Nuts discovered their first-ever pizza wine. We define Pizza Wine as a wine (usually red) that is inexpensive, easy to drink, inoffensive, and appropriate to serve with pizza, hot dogs on the grill, or any other casual meal. The wine that inspired the category was Fat Cat Cabernet Sauvignon by Black Mountain Vineyards, sold exclusively at Trader Joe’s.

A few nights ago we had pizza so we went to our go-to pizza wine. It was a 2005 Fat Cat and we were satisfied by our choice. It certainly wasn’t an amazing, oh-my-gosh wine but it served its purpose well. It was exceptionally sippable and it livened up with our pizza, especially the tomato sauce.

This Cabernet Sauvignon had everything a Cab should have: some bright red fruitiness, some oak, some tannin, some alcohol, some lingering finish. It just did not have any of these things in big enough quantities to make it a great wine. The Fat Cat is not a complex, complicated wine, but it is inoffensive and sippable and only $6 at Trader Joe’s. We recommend it as an everyday Cabernet. Online rumors suggest the Black Mountain Zinfandel is also pretty tasty, so stay tuned!

At $10, this Cabernet is over-priced

In two previous posts, we have reviewed some new offerings from Cost Plus World Market. Presumably in an attempt to introduce people to some traditional California wines at great prices, World Market has recently introduced Chard-on-yeah! (see November 8, 2007 post), Zin-fat-u-ation (see December 17, 2007 post), and Cab-u-lous. Having now sampled all three we can definitively say we are unimpressed at best, disappointed at worst.

Cab-u-lous is billed as “…the way one feels when experiencing a perfect Cab.” Cute enough. And we would agree that a perfect Cabernet Sauvignon is indeed a fabulous experience. Sadly, this wine won’t get you even close.

The 2005 Cab-u-lous had a heavy plum nose that mostly overcame the big whiffs of alcohol. A perfect Cab will smell of blackberries and jam and likely some woodiness. It will smell deep and rich. This one, well, we would sum it up as a mediocre house wine with a thin, burnt oak flavor. Honestly, it tasted like a cheap Cabernet which made us conclude it is over-priced at the usually consumer-friendly price of $9.99. At $5 or $6 we would have felt our money had been better spent.

Perhaps our biggest disappointment with these three varietals offered by World Market is that folks new to wine will sample them with the assumption that they are representative of Chardonnay, Zinfandel, and Cabernet Sauvignon. In our opinion, the Chardonnay comes closest to tasting like its namesake but the other two sadly miss the mark.

A fantastic Cabernet Franc

Our closest wine country of any real note is Oregon's Willamette Valley. We've had a chance to discover some big, well-known wineries (Erath) in the area as well as some small, boutique-y wineries. One of our favorite stops during a Willamette Valley wine festival a few years ago was an industrial barn shared by two small producers. Both turned out excellent wines and we walked away with numerous bottles from each. A few nights ago, we dug into our stash and opened a bottle of 2004 Dalla Vina Cabernet Franc. Oh, my.

Cabernet Franc is a red Bordeaux grape which is typically used as a blending grape. Winemakers often add it to their red varietals in order to impart acidity and aroma. However, more and more, winemakers are pulling out Cabernet Franc to stand on its own. This happened with Merlot a number of years ago. And it's just starting to happen with another grape called Malbec.

(As a side note, by law, a wine needs to contain only 75% of a grape to be called that type of wine. So, it is not uncommon for a Cabernet Sauvignon to also contain a little Cabernet Franc or Merlot or any number of other grape varietals and still be legally called a Cabernet Sauvignon.)

Cabernet Franc grapes are considered a genetic forefather of Cabernet Sauvignon. In fact, recent DNA research revealed that Cabernet Sauvignon is actually a cross between Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc. Your Two Wine Nuts think that's a pretty cool piece of wine trivia.

Cabernet Franc wines are thought to be lighter and fruitier than Cabernet Sauvignons, and that's just what we found with the 2004 Dalla Vina.

The Dalla Vina was a beautiful deep dark purple. Its aroma of dark rich berries was very similar to that of a Cabernet Sauvignon. It felt full and velvety in the mouth, something wine folks ingeniously call "mouthfeel." Overall, the Dalla Vina tasted just a touch lighter than a Cabernet Sauvignon but easily stood on its own.

While tasty to sip, we were totally blown away by this wine when we paired it with some food. We had the Cabernet Franc with a flat iron steak marinated in a huckleberry sauce. When paired with the steak, the wine suddenly came alive and burst with fruit. This is one of the things that can be such fun about wine: food can make a huge impact. One of your Wine Nuts is much better than the other at food and wine pairing. Surprisingly, this pairing was made totally by luck by the other Wine Nut. Jackpot!

Sadly, according to their website, the 2004 Dalla Vina Cabernet Franc is sold out. Judging from their other offerings, we probably paid $20-$25 for this bottle. If so, it was well priced and worth it. Keep an eye out for Cabernet Franc wines if you are wine tasting. If you are interested in buying one, visit a wine shop and ask for a recommendation. Don't be shy about saying you've never tried one; that always gets wine folks excited and eager to help.

For more info about Cabernet Franc, click here. For info about Dalla Vina, check out their website.

A good Cabernet for cooking

We needed a basic Cabernet Sauvignon for our favorite tri-tip marinade recipe so we went to our local Albertsons to see what we could find. We picked up a 2004 Chalone Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon on sale for $12.99 (regularly priced at $18.99). We had had good experiences with this pioneer Monterey County (California) winery in the past so we figured we had a safe bet. And the verdict? Eh. As a drinking wine, it’s great for a marinade.

This Cab was a deep rich purpley red, as we expected. Its smell, however, was not very pronounced. Aside from a wine smell, the only scent either Wine Nut could pick up was “dusty.” Having just taken the wine glasses out of the dishwasher, we know the glasses weren’t the dusty culprits.

Taste-wise, this California Cabernet started off nice and fruity but quickly disappeared. Because the flavor did not linger after the wine was swallowed, we would describe this wine as having a “short finish.” By contrast, a wine with a long finish – a very good thing – is one where even after the wine has slid down your throat, you can still taste various flavors and can continue enjoying the wine well before your next sip.

One Wine Nut also declared this pick to be over-oaked. He determined this by the astringent, dry feeling in the mouth and the wooden taste. Cabernets are very typically aged in oak barrels for some length of time in order to impart some of that oak – and often vanilla – flavor into the wine. A wine can get too oaky either by spending too much time in an oak barrel or by hanging out in a newer barrel. Some people like a lot of oak flavor in their wines (California Chardonnays are famous for this); your two Wine Nuts, not so much.

Overall, this Cabernet Sauvignon served its ingredient purpose well but it wouldn’t be our choice for a drinking wine. However, on a recent trip we picked up a bottle of a Chalone Vineyard Merlot at a grocery store. We shared it with some family while chatting in a hotel room and it was quite tasty, even when served in Styrofoam coffee cups. So if you want to try this old-standby Monterey County wine, go for the Merlot and skip the Cabernet…unless you’re marinating tri-tip. And $10-13 for either makes it worthwhile.