Uh Oh more Barry bashing…I don’t recall Bonds ever testing positive for steroids. Many accusations, a big weight gain, but no solid proof.
As far as the QOTD: Mid, I guess. Ready to try again with the Turnbull
Thanks again for an interesting, informative and wacky show.
Sincerely, a Giants fan

Gary,
I enjoy WLTV and find your comments interesting, educational and sometimes troubling. Troubling because just as high schools and colleges are suffering from grade inflation, I believe that wine drinkers are suffering because of score inflation. Take your comments on the Luna Cab. After your praise of the Turnbull and your harsh comments of the Luna, how can only six points differentiate the wines? After you comments I expected a 75 for the Luna. Don’t be afraid to give a wine you don’t like a low score. 86 is not a bad score and it certainly did not match your comments.

Where am I on my Cabernet ladder? I’m drinking more Pinot and Syrah than ever even though I still really like a very good cab. Excellent Cabernets have gotten entirely too expensive. There are too many $80.00 to $100.00+ wines that just don’t cut it for me. I’ve got a good selection of Insignia, Dunn Howell Mt., Lewis, etc although I still buy some I don’t buy as much as I used to. If Lewelling, or Turnbull can make a great cab for $40.00 why can’t others?
Regards,
Tony

Thanks for the heads-up on Turnbull, my house wine is Sabastiani Cab, I think it’s the best wine value for cheap skates like me so It’s nice to know if I want to spend $35 for a good bottle I now know what to pick-up. Where am I with Cabs, once I found them I never left but I do enjoy other reds on occation. Hope this satisfies your need for feedback. I can see why your pissing off some people who are trying to rip us off with thier over priced wines by hiding behind what is regarded as top names in wines. Critics HA!
Sincerely, Cheapskate

ya bmw!
I get plenty of cab at family dinners, restaurants, etc. When shopping for myself I tend to seek out the more obscure varietals.

qotd: i’ve always been on the same spot on my ladder: i buy cabernet about 15% of the time. i really like some cabs, new world and old, but i’m not obsessed with them. i forsee myself continuing on in the same fashion, having a cab here or there, unless something really drops a (oak) bomb on me.

I totally agreee. Back in ’99 my wife and I (before she was my wife) used to buy Turnbull for $23 a bottle (for a ’97 !) and we loved it. It’s still a bargain considering what you’re getting. I can’t tell you how many times I bought a $50 Cal Cab and said wow this sucks! compared to a Turnbull, or maybe a Sequioa Grove, etc.. You really gotta know where the bargains are in Cali.
J

Lurking far too long! Great show. My wife and I watch daily.

Been all over the ladder, including most of the world. Never been to the california topside, but definitely to Bordeaux. Enjoying the ones I put away years ago (CA and France), climbing different ladders now.

JUSTIN CRUSH all my wine ladders together. First of all, thank you thank you thank you for doing Turnbull. My wife bought the 2002 for me for our first Valentines day and I’ve been spending a better part of my paycheck every month aquisitioning it. I have a bottle of the 04 I picked up at their tasting room when I was in Napa last month and am very excited about opening it.

QOTD: in reference to the crushingness. Yes, I have taken you on your advice and am trying a different wine (almost) every night. Cabs make up a big part, very into the Alsace and Loire right now, Germany’s bringing it, Argentinian Malbec, and recently Cali Zins are treating me quite well. The list goes on of course. But to everyone out there, starting a wine club is the best way to be able to taste many different wines and differ the price among the members. I go to two wine seminars each once a month and have a wine tasting at my house once a month and the remaining weekend is for the wife. Needless to say, I get a chance to try A LOT of wines and encourage everyone else to seek out or start a wine tasting club.

Gary, Thank you so much for doing these episodes. My husband and I are some what new to the wine world. It is nice to try suggested wine instead of wasting our money on terrible ones. We haven’t quite got on the Cab latter yet. But I am looking forward to having some Turnbull. Thanks again!!

Another great show! I was running up near the top of the cab ladder last year after a trip to Napa. Returned with many $$$ cabs (Cakebread, Quintessa, Peju, etc.) but now have been easing down a bit. Not that these wines aren’t “bringing the thunder”, it’s just that as Gary said, there are definitely cabs that are “bringing the QPR”! A few favorites: Dynamite, Curious Beagle, Chateau St. Michelle Canoe Creek (’02 is better than ’03 if you can find it). Now that summer is near we have been checking out lighter juice like Syrah/Grenache blends, Pinot Gris (Alsace), and Sauvignon Blanc.

I agree with your opinion on Turnbull’s cab from the beautiful Napa Valley. To me, $35 is splurging on a bottle of wine, but when I do, that’s what I get.

As a friend of mine always says-the beginning of the end

Not drinking Cabernet at all right now. Have in the past, but am branching out and trying everything else. Really digging the Spanish reds right now, though I must admit this episode is starting to make me think about Cab’s again. Check back in the fall when it gets dark earlier and the temps start dropping off.

very cool episode! Nice theme!

QOTD:I was off it and now back on re-discovering it for myself 😉

I am all over the Cab-ladder. Working in the biz, I taste about fifteen to twenty wines per week on top of the one or two that I drink at home. Fifteen years ago, Cab was the only red wine in the world for my sophomoric mind, then I worked at Citronelle (When in its shortlived life in Baltimore), and learned that there were actually more red grapes in the world than the mighty Cab! I have to say, though, that I am still much more of a New World guy. I appreciate some of the Old World aspects, but overall I like the Cali cabs.

Wow! What an outstanding website! I’m so impressed with your approach to wine and the quality of this site/your reviews. Just added a link on my blog (mybluetooth.blogspot.com) to this site.

As for California Cabs, you hit it right on the nose – they are all so impressed with themselves that they are pricing themselves right out of the market. Why spend $50+ on an average bottle of wine? Also, they are overdoing the oak, and like you, I suffer from “Oak Monster” phobia. Robert Parker, Wine Spectator, et al aren’t helping the matter, either. They are feeding the frenzy, making it worse. I question their objectivity.

QOTD: Oh, yes, I had a Cab-ladder made of 100% American Oak. For a time, it was the only ladder I would use. But after I sold my excess bottles to others who still thought it was “da bomb”, I had my ladder ground into chips and shipped it off to a low-budget producer that can’t afford barrels.

QOTD: Probably at the end of the laddder. I’m pretty much Bordeaux and certain Napa producers exclusively, with the occasional Washington St or Chilean Cab thrown in.

QOTD: Cabernet…I hated it at first (oak monster, perhaps), then I’ve had some that I liked over the past few years. That always seems like more of a fall/winter wine to me, so I’m not drinking any right now.

okay…. pic snapin’ happening,,, what is that about? and i’m starting to think you aren’t really just tasting these fantastic wines for us…. can we say spoiled?

Turnbull under $ 40.00 not in Michigan !!!!! still a sleeper wine from Napa..

I only do cab when the food calls for it. I find it quite boring.

I agree with wine lush cab is really booooooooooooooring to me 🙂

I started out drinking nothing but cab and have moved on to try different wines. Always love a good Cab though.

I’ve also always found Turnbull to be a good deal, year in and year out. After the Eucalyptus trees they felled back in the late 80’s finally worked their way through soils and into the wines (peaking in ’91 and ’92), I noticed Turnbull has lost the big mint of the early 90s but is still a great wine.

3 out of 4 reds my wife and I drink are Cab Sauv dominated. But we love the Arietta that don’t have any Cab Sauv (H Block, Variation One), and some of the B&H blends and Syrah dominated Rhones. And 1 in every 25 bottles will be a single varietal like Petite Sirah or Cab Franc.