Woodbridge Cabernet Sauvignon- Worth a try?

First, today's lesson- if you look the wine up online you may learn more about it before you drink it, making your blogging experience much easier and more interesting for your readers.  I will do my best to avoid this mistake in the future.  This post, however, will give us a chance to see what I tasted (with the help of last night's fellow tasters) compared to what Mr. Robert Mondavi thought we should taste.

First, the scenario.  The best wine, of course, is free wine.  My in-laws won this wine and kindly shared it with us.  (Thank you airlines for making it too expensive to check a bag AND illegal to carry bottles larger than 3oz on the plane!)  So last night's tasters were me, my husband, and my mother-in-law.  My father-in-law aided in our aroma analysis.  The more the merrier!

The wine was Robert Mondavi's Woodbridge 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon.  The label told us we would a "spicy dark fruit character with a velvety smooth finish."

While smelling the wine- swirling properly and breathing deeply, of course- we noticed a slight sting in our nasal cavities and a wood undertone.  I can only imagine the sting came from the spice and the wood from the aging process.  Then we did our taste analysis.  I feel this was fuller than Chateau St. Jean's Cab from earlier this week.  We couldn't taste specifically the dark fruit character but definitely noticed the spice.  There was also a better finish (the taste you get after you finish swallowing) on this wine.  It had a slight bite, but was full.

Next we did our profile analysis.  Before we get to that, let me make a plug for one of my favorite Apps:

I use Wine Notes, developed by William Lindmeier, to keep track of the wines I drink.  This iPhone/iPod Touch App lets you store images of each wine with their name, producer, variety, vintage, alcohol level, etc.  Then you have the opportunity to add the flavors that are supposed to be there and fill out a profile with the sweetness, tannins, acidity, and body of each wine.  You can also select a color.  These are all stored and you can search them by variety, name, or recently added.  You can also make notes for each tasting.  It's great for when you're in the store deliberating whether that merlot was fantastic or left you with a hangover the next morning.

But anyways, we found this wine to have little sweetness, a few tannins, moderate acidity, and a medium-low body.  It leaves your mouth a little dry, but had a sort of full feeling.  Not that it was light, but it wasn't the fullest feeling wine ever.

Now- for the comparison with Mr. Mondavi's write-up:
The blackberry black cherry  notes would have been nice to know about earlier.  I think it would have made it easier to notice them.  Maybe.  Hints of dark chocolate, cedar, and black olive?  I wish, check, absolutely not.  Oh well.  Noticed the "smooth, velvety tannins" and smooth mouthfeel.  Spicy finish- got it.  Go team.

Overall- we enjoyed this wine and it went well with the Lindt Chile Chocolate we had.  This wine is often served in restaurants so next time you're out, go ahead- it's worth it.

-wine dummy

PS- You can check out Wine Notes at WineNotesApp.com