Matuco 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon ~$9

I'm a fan of the Matuco Malbec, but not so much of this recent Cabernet Sauvignon bottling from Argentina.

The nose hinted a bit at classic Cab aromas of tar and dark berry. At first I thought it was closed and needed some time in the glass, but it never really opened up.

There were hints of plum and briary blackberry, but for the most part the fruit and backbone of a Cabernet Sauvignon - from Mendoza, Bordeaux, Napa, wherever - was MIA. It was hard to believe that this is a 14% ABV wine, given its overall reticence.

Score

Drinkability: 5/10
Price: 3/5
Total value: 9/15

Flat Rock 2009 California Chardonnay - ~$4

I didn't care much for Fresh & Easy's Flat Rock Merlot (wouldn't thinking up names for imaginary wineries be a fun job, by the way?). The Flat Rock Chardonnay is a bit more appealing, but really this is damning with faint praise.

Typical of a very young white, it is green-yellow in the glass. The nose is muted to the point of silence. To its credit, it does not commit the sins common to bottom-shelf Cali Chardonnays - too much buttery sweetness, too much oaky richness. There is a bit of creamy mouthfeel and some pleasant apple-lemon freshness on the palate, but on the whole this wine is a bit too neutral; "inoffensive" might be the best word to describe it.



Score

Drinkability: 4/10
Price: 5/5
Total value: 9/15

Ambas 2008 Chardonnay - ~ $6

Not much to write home about here. I like Argentinian Chardonnays generally because of their emphasis on pure fruit, and there's a bit of that here - some pear and apple crispness and a hint of tropical fruit richness - but all in all the wine comes off as simple and bit muddled, with an off-putting acidic harshness on the finish.

I might have gotten an off bottle, so I'll try again in the near future.

Score

Drinkability: 5/10
Price: 4/5
Total value: 9/15

Penrosa 2008 Rosé - ~$6

Here we have a Spanish VdlT rosé from Bodeagas Realeza, which I assume is a typical "in name only" winery of the sort Fresh & Easy uses for its in-house wines. The grapes are Tempranillo from the Castilla Y León region in the northwest.

The wine takes a while to open up, or, I should say, warm up. Faint aromas of candied strawberry and lime zest emerged after a bit of time in the glass. Though it is dry, this is a rosé that goes in the direction of strawberry and raspberry sweetness, and perhaps a bit too far. Though it offers some fizzy effervescence early on, overall the wine struck me as a bit flat and simple.

While I can't complain much given the price, there are better, cheaper alternatives very close to hand.




Score

Drinkability: 5.5/10
Price: 5/5
Total value: 10.5/15

Rockcliffe Family 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon - ~$11

I often find Cabernet Sauvignons from Washington state leaning toward the leaner side of the flavor profile, which can be a good thing in that it allows these Cabs to bring some of them more subtle varietal characteristics to the fore. Fresh & Easy's 2006 Rockcliffe Family Cabernet Sauvignon from the Columbia Valley doesn't quite manage to pull this trick off.

The nose is a pleasant mixture of chocolate and toasted cinnamon spice, but the palate is rather austere, offering some cherry and blackberry set against moderate, somewhat rough tannins.

Not a bad wine, but not, as the back label proclaims, "a classic Washington State Cabernet." For that I'd stick to something like Columbia Crest's ubiquitous and very affordable Grand Estates bottling.


Score

Drinkability: 6.5/10
Price: 4/5
Total value: 10.5/15

Cape Peak 2008 Syrah - ~$5

This Syrah comes from South Africa’s Western Cape, which doesn't really tell you much. It is like saying "California" or "South Eastern Australia."  I wasn't fond of Fresh & Easy's Cape Peak Chardonnay because it had an odd, non-varietal taste.

This Syrah’s a bit of a different story, in that it takes the flavor profile of a soft, dark, fruity Australian Shiraz in a rather extreme direction.  Though the nose is interesting, offering plummy earthiness, sweet tobacco, and clove,  in the mouth this wine's candied blackberry sweetness is a bit overwhelming.  It's as though the winemkaer thought to himself, "If they like that [yellow tail], they're going to love this!"  I don't mind [yellow tail] (aside from the silly typography), but this wine seems bit too eager to please.

At ~$5, though, this wine will definitely find many fans among the fruit bomb set.



Score

Drinkability: 5/10
Price: 5/5
Total value: 10/15

Merlara 2007 Corvina-Merlot - ~$4 (on sale)

I picked this bottle up at a Fresh & Easy other than my local one. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen it at my local for a while. This leads me to believe that this label is on the clearance track. At ~$4 this is a great value. It’s an IGT from the Veneto, one that combines mostly Corvina (the big grape in Valpolicellas) and some Merlot. There’s some of that nice sour cherry from the Corvina and the wine overall has a nice deep earthy weight.

As when my local was selling the 2006 Yalumba “Y series” Viognier for $3.00 a bottle, I‘m going to buy all of the Merlara I can find.


Score

Drinkability: 8/10
Price: 5/5
Total value: 13/15

Clairville 2007 Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon - ~$14

I thought this Alexander Valley Cab might be the second of a sort of “matched set” with Fresh & Easy’s Small Wonders Chardonnay, given that they’re the first wines at Fresh & Easy from single appellations in Sonoma County, they arrived on the shelf at about the same time, and they're both currently on sale for ~$10.

At any rate, the appellation and the simultaneous arrival on the shelf would appear to be a coincidence. Where Small Wonders was very much an easy-to-like Sonoma Chard, Clairville is not likewise a typically soft, voluptuous, oaky Cab in the style of say, Geyser Peak’s or Sebastiani’s Sonoma County bottlings.

Rather, this is a wine with some guts and some tannin. It’s a bit on the rustic side, which is to say that it’s somewhat astringent and rough around the edges. If you prefer an old-fashioned Cab to the more polished contemporary California style, this might be a good choice. To my mind though, it’s kind of tight and closed, with the tannic finish swallowing up the fruit.



Score

Drinkability: 6.5/10
Price: 4/5
Total value: 10.5/15

Lancewood Cabernet Sauvignon ~$9 (~7 on sale)

Here’s an instance of why reading labels is tricky but is likewise very important.

The grapes in this Cabernet Sauvignon are from the Barossa  Zone rather than the more prestigious Barossa Valley appellation, which is a specific entity within the Barossa Zone.  At least that’s my best guess.  If the grapes (at least 85% percent of them, at any rate) came from the Barossa Valley, surely that would be indicated on the label.  At any rate, you shouldn’t consider this wine in the ranks of Barossa Valley heavyweights such as Penfolds or Peter Lehmann, either geographically or stylistically.

Speaking of style, the Lancewood 2007 Cab is, in a word, underwhelming.  In the glass the color is a surprisingly translucent purple, more like a Beaujolais than a Cab.  The 12.5% ABV, lightweight for a Cab, is another indicator of something less than robust.  The nose offers mild aromas of blackberry and raspberry jam and a bit of sweet cinnamon.  The first impression in the mouth is of a moderately fruit-forward and sweet red.  The flavor profile is fairly simple, featuring blackberry and hints of mocha and mint.  The tannins are quite soft and the whole experience is over in a hurry.

That’s not to say that it’s a bad experience, just an insubstantial one.  True, the wine is only around $9, but if Fresh & Easy wines demonstrate one thing, it’s that there’s more bang to be had for that many bucks.

Score

Drinkability: 5/10
Price: 3/5
Total value: 8/15