The next stop on my adventure with my cousin was the Slingshot Cabernet Sauvignon 2007. It was dark purple in colour, with aromas of blackberry swirled with vanilla. Dark chocolate and raspberry flavours rounded out the medium to nearly full body like a decadent Italian pastry. The lengthy finish was slightly tannic, yet packed with tobacco and coffee notes. This quite nearly desert-in-a-glass was not complex, but it was consistent and well structured. It really wants to be paired with food, and my spicy vegetable soup made an unlikely gratifying coupling. Whilst the Slingshot is desert-like in flavor, it is not a sweet glass, the chili pepper heat in the soup served to articulate the smooth dryness that helps to convey it as an easy-drinking bottle.
Incidentally, Slingshot is the second label of Stewart Cellars*. As in with many other up-market vineyards in California, the tolls of the recession can be felt. The demand for $100 bottles of Cabernet is not nearly what it used to be. The vineyards are still propagating their wonderful grapes, so producers are creating second and sometimes even third labels for their wines. Those of us on budgets are the direct beneficiary of this process; we get to enjoy the same organic, sustainably farmed, high-end wines, by the best producers, at a substantially lower price. As proof of how well this method works for both producers and wine consumers, the Slingshot 2007 is already sold out from many wine shops, including the Slingshot website, where they say we have to wait until 2012 for their next release.* “Slingshot is a family effort shepherded by James Stewart, one of Napa Valley’s next generation winemakers—a group of young men and women assuming central roles in legacy wine businesses. James joins his peers in focusing on issues surrounding sustainability, preservation, labor practices and maintaining family-owned businesses. Slingshot reflects his ambition to preserve a vital family enterprise and practice meaningful land stewardship—both while producing unpretentious fine wine.”
100% Cabernet Sauvignon
Napa Valley
California
Vinted and Bottled by Slingshot
14.5% alcohol
$22 [average price]
Enjoy now through 2016
