Wine Last Sold on: March 5, 2013
De Angelis Wines
Featured Wine:
2010 Cabernet Sauvignon
| Varietal: | Cabernet Sauvignon |
| Region: | California: Paso Robles |
| Availability: | Limited |
| Avg. Price: | $30.00 |
| Wine Spies: | $24.00 |
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SUPERIOR WINE ALERT:
We only showcase wines that we love. While our emphasis is on quality first, every now and again we come across a real standout wine that rises above. When we do, we issue alerts like this one.
SUPER QPR ALERT:
At today’s special Wine Spies price, this wine delivers tremendous value - and a drinking experience that exceeds expectations, easily earning it this special QPR (Quality to Price Ratio) Alert.
Mission Codename: The Angels Sang
- Operative
- Agent Red
- Objective
- Return to De Angelis Wines, a San Luis Obispo winery that has been creating quite a stir on California’s Central Coast. Procure an ample allotment of their 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon, a delicious, ready-to-drink wonder that our Operatives will love.
- Mission Status
- Accomplished!
- Winemaker
- Jerry and Marsha De Angelis
Final Assessment
This wine really took our tasting panel by storm, earning it a highly recommended by all who tasted it. While youthful, this wine is delicious - and it shows incredible promise. Drink now, but be sure to hold a few bottles of this age-worthy wine for up to the next decade.
Bold, dark fruit balanced against earth and spice make this a well-rounded and elegant wine. A touch of mint and eucalyptus on the nose remind us of the best of Mt. Veeder in Napa. Veeder wines with these attributes command very high prices.
Be sure to serve this wine in a proper, medium-sized Bordeaux glass. Aromas are far more unified in such a glass, giving the wine a more balanced appeal.
This the perfect wine for a filet Mignon with a wild mushroom sauce.
Tasting Profile
A deep crimson heart, with lovely purple highlights at the edges. The wine spins very quickly in the glass, taking a very long time to settle down. After it settles, wine-stained tears take a long time to appear before moving very slowly down the glass.
A bold rush of lush aromas leap from the glass. Bold black cherry, dried blueberry, dusty wild blackberry, tobacco leaf, cedar bark and provide a lovely overall backbone. Under these are hints of olive, black tea leaf and a hint of leather.
Balanced and dark, with blackberry, black cherry, dried Bing cherry, green tobacco, dried cranberry, ultra dried plum, subtle Earl Grey tea leaf and hints of black pepper and white pepper.
Very long with plush tannins that lead to a velvety feel at the edges of the palate.
What the Winery Says
Another De Angelis Wine bottled in mid-May 2012 is now available. This wine was released on January 1, 2013. This Cabernet Sauvignon will be the first De Angelis Wines Cabernet Sauvignon available to the general public since the esteemed 2004 vintage. (The 2009 vintage sold out while still in barrel.) This 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon was developed predominantly from Cabernet Sauvignon fruit from the Dry Creek Vineyard in Paso Robles, CA, the property on which our winery is located. It is Cabernet Sauvignon blended with small amounts of estate Merlot, and non- estate Cabernet Franc.
The fruit for this wine was picked on October 10th, 2011, and processed that day. The Brix was 24°, the pH 3.57, and the Total Acidity 0.77. Two separate fermentations were carried out to completion. One with yeast that promotes jam, cedar and mild spiciness flavors, and another that promotes intense fore-mouth volume, mid-palate and fresh after taste. Following fermentation, these two lots were pressed, then combined, and barreled.
The resultant wine is a 14.1% classic Cabernet, that exhibits wonderful fruit both on the nose and in the mouth, a terrific mouth feel, spice, and a long finish, spice and. This wine was aged in both Hungarian and French oak barrels for 18 months, and allowed to develop slowly. Twenty five percent of the barrels were re-coopered and re-toasted to our specifications. De Angelis Wines does not enjoy heavy oak flavors. Consequently, the remaining barrels were selected to provide only modest oak flavors.
From the time this wine was in barrel, it was clear that this wine would be a very fine representation of a Cabernet Sauvignon. It was blended and bottled in May of 2012, and aged in bottle for seven additional months. This wine, along with the 2010 Pinot Noir, is one of the first wines to sport the newly re-designed De Angelis Wines label.
About the Winery
In 2006 we were asked to help design a new winery, where wines would be made for a number of people as well for as ourselves. We accepted. During that year we not only made wines for others, but established De Angelis Wines. De Angelis Wines is a small production label, where each wine is crafted by hand. The fruit for our wines is sourced from our own small vineyard in San Luis Obispo County, as well as the Santa Barbara area, and the Sacramento Delta. The total production of our 2006 wines was 355 cases. Production in 2007 was 535 cases of our wines. We increased production in 2009 to 735 cases. In addition, we also managed to make approximately 12,000 cases for other folks at the winery. Our latest work in wine making was completing a 2011 harvest, followed by accepting invitations to design, and help build, two new wineries, and to be the winemakers and/or consulting winemakers at both. So in what area do we make all these great wines? That area is Paso Robles, CA.
This story is not terribly dissimilar to others who have gone from home to professional wine makers. We did this fairly quickly. One reason is that one of us has a doctorate in chemistry, so that part was easy. The other reason is that we are probably – when one combines our ages, either the oldest, or one of the oldest pair of winemakers on the planet – 136 years young. This experience is very important as we make wine, manage our vineyard, and manage the winery in general. Additionally, we still do quite a bit of the work ourselves. This is often to the chagrin of our young, impressionable, but terrific staff.
