Cosentino 2002 M.Coz Napa Valley Meritage

This is a bottle that we got a couple of years back in our wine club member shipment from Cosentino Winery. Tonight it was time to pop it open to go with a nice Filet Mignon.

This is a unfined and unfiltered wine made from Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.

It has an extremely dark, dense garnet color in the glass. The nose reveals dark cherry, blackberry, black currant, and vanilla. The wine is equally concentrated in fruit and berries on the palate with black cherry, blackberry, plum and black currant with some dusty earth. The tannins are plentiful and very firm. The finish is relatively long with fruit, earthiness and with a slight heat from the relatively high alcohol level (14.6%).

This is all over a very intense, although not overly ripe, wine on both nose and palate. With the firm tannins this makes for a young 2002 that I wish I would have kept my hands off another couple of years, at least... Not to say it's not a really enjoyable wine at this point in time, but you will see the benefits if you stash it in the back of your pile for 5 years or so.

My wine club member price was $90 and the winery sells it at their web site for $120 to the public. You can make an even better deal at Wine-Searcher.com where you can find it from $75.


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Cosentino Winery 2003 The Poet Meritage Napa Valley

This meritage consists of 56% Cabernet Sauvignon, 26% Cabernet Franc, and 18% Merlot. Each lot was aged separately in French oak for 30 months, then blended and bottled unfined.

The color in the glass is a very dark, clear, ruby red, whispering of intense fruit. Dark floral and tons of black liquorice greets you on the nose with black tea, blackberry and black currant. On the palate, more blackberry, black currant, cherry, oak, and semi firm, well integrated tannins that balances out the intense fruit well.

I thought this was a great full bodied blend that is big and intense but still well balanced and never goes out of hand on the fruit. Will age well for many years to come. I got it in a wine club shipment a while back at the cost of $65. You can find it at the wineries website at that price, or at Wine-Searcher.com from $39.99.


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Venge 2000 Family Reserve Scout's Honor Napa Valley

We got this bottle quite a few years ago when having a private tasting at the Venge Family's winery, Saddleback Cellars. The Venge 2000 Family Reserve Scout's Honor Napa Valley is made from 81% zinfandel, 14% charbono and 5% petite sirah. It is named after the very first winery dog at their property, the yellow lab, Scout. Scout passed away months before the first release of this wine and was named in his honor.
This wine has been put away for quite a few years and pulling it from the stack today I was afraid that it would have past it's prime. I fooled myself...
This wine has a beautiful dense, ruby red, color in the glass with medium clarity. It displays great black cherries, black berries, tobacco, and some oaky vanilla on the nose. Moving to the palate, again black cherry and black berries, with black currant and earthy spice. This really held up a lot better than I expected it to and we, me and my husband, really enjoyed this wine.
I can not find it online for sale after moderate research. We bought it in 2002/2003 (my memory fails me...) for $30. Well worth it considering both the story behind it and the quality. Long live our precious best friends (our dogs)!

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