The Clos du Roy Fronsac is a primarily Merlot-based wine (90%) with just a bit of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc blended in for good measure (5%) of each.
We quickly noticed two things after opening this one. On the nose, it was incredibly perfumed and on the palate, it was significantly more tannic than we expected.
You guessed it, we opened this one too soon.
The Fableist Cabernet Sauvignon is not a pure bottle of Cab, but is in fact comprised of 85% Cabernet Sauvignon and balanced with Merlot, Petit Verdot, and Tempranillo.
We opened this one for a steak pairing thinking we'd have a pronounced acid and tannin fruit bomb, but instead found something a bit more nuanced. Good for what we were tasting, but perhaps not the best for the particular pairing.
Generally when we think of wine from the Finger Lakes, our mind goes to an array of white grapes that we absolutely love from the region. While we've had some delicious reds, including several bottles of Cabernet Franc and Saperavi from various producers, we haven't quite had a red blend like Bloomer Creek's White Horse.
This one contains the regional favorite Cabernet Franc with a mix of Merlot for good measure, making for an especially powerful wine.
At five years old this one still had an impressive tannin level and evolved considerably as we drank it. To be quite honest, we'd even love to age this wine a few more years for good measure!
Although the term Super Tuscan is more or less a marketing word used to describe high-quality wines outside of the traditional Italian designation classification when we hear the name used our ears perk up all the same if only because, on the whole, we've had some pretty stellar Super Tuscans when traveling around the region.
Fattoria di Bagnolo's Capro Rosso was one such Super Tuscan, and after visiting the vineyard on a trip to Tuscany in 2019, I was more than happy to pick up some bottles (including the delicious Fattoria di Bagnolo Chianti Riserva). In this review, we popped open a bottle of the 2016 vintage to see what the Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot blend was like four years in.