August 28, 2014Conrad (The Wine Wankers)

Happy International Cabernet Day!

wine wankers international cabernet dayI love how social media celebrates wine days and today is a biggie, it’s Cabernet Day!  Being a wine lover, any excuse to focus on drinking wine is a good excuse.  Not that I actually really need one but a day like Cabernet Day is as good an excuse as it gets.  Other equally good excuses include birthdays, anniversaries, Wine Wednesday, friends over, getting home from work, needing to make room for more wine, just because.

The first tweet came through a few days ago giving notice that wine lovers should be preparing for this special day.  This was the initial call to arms… “time to start thinking wine lovers”.  The justifiable hype built up over a few days until the flood came through over the last 24 hours.  It’s a day not to be missed!

So how did I prepare?  With great effort of course.  It went something like this… “I’m home from work, should I have a wine?”… “Damn, that’s right, it’s Cabernet Day, that’s good enough for me!”  We’ve had some miserable weather here in Sydney so I couldn’t be stuffed heading outside and under the house to dig out some dusties to celebrate.  So I had to go with whatever Cabernet was sitting in easy reach on my little inside wine rack.  I know, definitely an E for effort.

wine wankers jacobs creek double barrel cabernet sauvignon 2012But what a good move that turned out to be!  I grabbed one of the 2012 Jacob’s Creek Double Barrel Cabernet Sauvignon.  I’ve had one of these before and really liked it.  It’s an interesting wine that has been finished in Irish whiskey barrels.

What does that mean you ask?

Well quite often whiskey is actually fermented in old wine barrels and it’s rarely ever done the other way around.

Does it make a difference?

Well the first time we had this wine I didn’t tell my wife about the process and as soon as she smelled the wine she said “It smells a bit like whiskey”.

To be honest, there was definitely an earthy dry type aroma but the connection was not that clear to me.  Still very interesting that she noticed.

So how was the wine this time around?

I really like this wine and even more so this time.  For the price, of about $20 or so, it’s actually a value for money example of Coonawarra Cabernet.  There’s quite a lot of depth of fruit flavour backed up by some serious earthiness and savouriness, and even a bit of mint and spice, that makes the wine rather complex for the price point.  It’s just an enjoyable all round Cabernet and it’s a bonus that it displays a bit of the regionality of Coonawarra.

I asked my wife if she noticed the whiskey on the nose this time and she said no, but she did get an earthiness that may have come from the barrels.  Strange that now she knew the process of the wine she no longer noticed a scent of whiskey.  After two of these wines (and one of the Shiraz, a lovely wine finished in Scotch whiskey barrels) I’ve come to the conclusion that there is definitely some interesting and inviting complexity in the wine but how much of that is attributed to the whiskey barrels I’m not sure.  But for Cabernet Day, I sort of don’t care – it’s been a lovely wine!

Author: Conrad

72 comments

  5. Coonawarra remains my favourite red wine region in the world due to its excellent cabernets – Wynns, Katnook and Balnaves are particular favourites.

    The mint and eucalyptus aromas and flavours are so marked that I could pick them out of a Tyrrell’s VAT 8 🙂

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  6. Happy Cabernet Day, Conrad and the rest of the Wine Wankers. Hope you drink to your heart’s content today…but I’m sure you do it all the time 😉 Ah, Jacob’s Creek. My dad loves that brand of wine. I suppose he has good taste 🙂

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    • I’m so glad you’ve mentioned that. The concept has received a few negative responses by few people on our other social media. It’s the whole “that can’t possibly be any good” argument. It’s good to know that it has worked elsewhere too. Seriously, we really enjoyed this wine, it worked for us. And I suppose that’s all that matters. Thanks for commenting and I hope you’ve been enjoying a good one yourself. Salud!

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  21. Just yesterday I noticed a red wine that had been finished in a whiskey barrel. I didn’t pay attention to the label; perhaps it was the same. I was in a hurry in the booze emporium, and I didn’t take time to inspect the wine. I’ll do so the next time I’m in. It sounds interesting!

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  25. Reblogged this on Smorgasbord – Variety is the spice of life and commented:
    When I began my catering management training with Schooner Inns back in 1975 the wine list was very short – you started with a schooner of amontillado sherry -moved onto a young Gewürztraminer or if daring Mateus Rose. Nobody asked to taste it before being poured so the bottle was usually put in an icebucket and you helped yourself. We did have one or two reds, also young and I seem to remember that they were more pink than red. You bought your wine at specialist off licences and hoped you did not sound like an idiot when asking questions. However, today we are dazzled and somewhat bemused by the wonderful varieties of wine from around the world that we are able to buy in any supermarket. By now I do know more or less what grape variety I prefer and living in Spain we have access to some wonderful Cavas and superb Reds. I still however lack education and if you too would love to know more about the wines that perhaps you have not tried before then pop over and browse the shelves on this terrific site.

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  31. Wine helps to teach patience. First, one must wait for grape to ripen. Then waiting for the harvest. Then waiting a little more for this and that. At last, the bottle is home but wait a little to let it ‘breath’. Finally there’s time to enjoy that great cabernet. It’s worth waiting for!!!!
    love this delicious post!
    Thank you very much for following. Eddie

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  32. Hi, thanks for visiting my blog, much appreciated! I love wine but don’t know much about it, so will follow you now. I hope you will decide to follow my blog back. 🙂

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