Friday, July 25, 2014

Sebastiani 2011 Cabernet Sauvignon, Sonoma County


This Cab came at the end of a very long day. Let me start at the beginning.
At the conclusion of the Wine Bloggers Conference in Santa Barbara County I planned a visit with my cousin Mary in Huntington Beach. That meant I had to catch an Amtrak connector bus at 5:20 AM out of Buellton.
Yikes! That’s not an ideal situation after four days of non-stop wine tasting.
After overcoming a no-show cabbie, I finally caught the bus and made it to the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner. This is perhaps my favorite train – rolling smoothly along right next to the sandy beaches and crashing Pacific waves.
Soon after arrival Mary, husband Cleve and I headed to the SeaCliff Country Club where we enjoyed a lunch with some beer. It was then on to the tennis court. For someone from Ohio, it’s nice to play tennis with ocean breezes and palm trees swaying.
Mary and I took on two of her friends for two rampaging sets. We came up just short in the first one and then the wheels came off in the second. However, it was rally time in the third set in which I squared off against Mary and her friend Scott and came away victorious. We then hopped into the hot tub and chillaxed with some Mojitos.
Cleve is quite a cook and he rustled up some delicious chicken tetrazzini for dinner. We started with some Starborough Sauvignon Blanc. As the long day wound into evening, we decanted this bottle of Sebastiani Cabernet Sauvignon.
Is it a masterpiece? It most definitely is when paired with an original painting by French artist Marc Chagall! (Thanks for the photo idea, Cleve.)
This wine is 82% Cabernet Sauvignon with Merlot and Syrah rounding out the blend. The flavors are of blackberries, herbs and toasted oak. The tannins are medium and the smoothness was enhanced by decanting. The finish is extensive and rewarding.
Thanks to the hospitality of Mary and Cleve, plus the Sebastiani, I was soon “California Dreamin’.”

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