Good Morning!

Over the weekend I opened a bottle I had received as a very special gift. I was given this bottle for my birthday and my friend who gave it to me wanted to open it and try it. I found the bottle of Chateau St Jean Sonoma 2006 Cinq Cepapes Cabernet Sauvignon Sonoma County. The wine has a long title but I love all the information and thought I would share some of it with you.

First of all, my pal said I found this wine at the grocery store and it was the most expensive bottle I could find without getting someone to unlock a case. Well, I had to giggle, I thought that is sweet of her, she is not much of a wine drinker so she thinks the more you pay the better the wine, bless her heart. It was a young wine and I got out two glasses and the decanter. She was intrigued about the whole decanter “thingy”, so I opened the bottle and poured a sample in her glass and then I poured the wine into the decanter, after I poured the wine in the decanter I then poured another sample from the decanter into another glass and ask her to just sniff each one. The look on her face after she sniffed them both, was priceless.

She said, what does that thing do to the wine? I launched into a spiel about oxygen and wine and her face went blank. I said now, just try the wine and she pointed to the decanted wine and said this tastes much better. All this being said I poured two glasses and we sat down to watch my favorite team The Indianapolis Colts. I took my first sip and this wine needed to open up, so in the 15 minutes I was swirling it around I was doing a little research on this wine, here is what I found out.

This wine is called a Cabernet Sauvignon, but there are 5 grape varities used to create this blend This is why it states on the label Cinq Cepages. The grapes used are Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Merlot and Petit Verdot. This blend in France is called a Bordeaux Blend, but in the United States this blend s called Meritage if it meets certain requirements. Maybe the reason this wine is called Cabernet Sauvignon and not a Meritage is because the blending amounts do not meet the United States standards for that on the label. The standards for calling a wine a Meritage as I understand them are as follows:

1. The wine has to have two or more Bordeaux grape varieties – red wines are, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmenere, Gros Verdot, Malbec, Merlot, Petit Verdot and St. Macaire. (No more than 90 percent of any single variety may go into a Meritage wine.

2. It must be the winery’s best wine of it’s type.

3. It must be produced and bottled by a U.S. winery from grapes that carry a U.S. Appellation.

4. Its production is limited to a maximum of 25,000 cases per vintage.

After reading the label, I made some assumptions that the winemaker of Chateau St Jean Sonoma, Margo Van Staaveren, used more than 90% Cabernet Sauvignon. Then I thought, maybe they did not want to be restricted by the name Meritage, maybe they made more than just 25,000 cases.

At this point, I just wanted to see if the wine had opened up and it had. The heat from the first sip was gone and now this wine was balanced, had deep black fruit and smokiness, a brightness and roundness at the same time. The wine is young and playful and I am sure with a few more years in the bottle, this wine would drink like a wine ROCKSTAR!

This was my favorite wine this past weekend, I am going to the store and pick up a couple of bottles and get them in my cellar to taste again in a few years and see how some age treats this blend of varieties!

Much LOVE and wine,

Tammi