Winemaker Notes
Red and black fruits comingled with herbaceous elements brighten flavors of rich food, such as the obvious lamb, steak or burger. Echo the wine sensory experience of herbal notes with herb seasoned dishes that feature thyme, rosemary or basil. Vegetables with a bitter edge such as broccoli rabe, radicchio, or brussel sprouts counteract the leafy, herbal notes of Cabernet.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A firm, silky cabernet with chocolate and currant aromas and flavors. Full body, fine tannins. Attractive currant, rosebush and almond aftertaste. Yummy, balanced cab. Drink now or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon Tellus is an amazing value wine and to my palate, it is by far the best of the three wines in the Tellus series. The wine offers true varietal notes of blackberry and dried cherry. It is aged in neutral oak for up to six months. You can taste some of those toasted notes, but they are not invasive.
A noble variety bestowed with both power and concentration, Cabernet Sauvignon enjoys success all over the globe, its best examples showing potential to age beautifully for decades. Cabernet Sauvignon flourishes in Bordeaux's Medoc where it is often blended with Merlot and smaller amounts of some combination of Cabernet Franc, Malbecand Petit Verdot. In the Napa Valley, ‘Cab’ is responsible for some of the world’s most prestigious, age-worthy and sought-after “cult” wines. Somm Secret—DNA profiling in 1997 revealed that Cabernet Sauvignon was born from a spontaneous crossing of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc in 17th century southwest France.
Centered upon the lush Apennine Range in the center if the Italian peninsula, Umbria is one of the few completely landlocked regions in Italy. It’s star red grape variety, Sagrantino, finds its mecca around the striking, hilltop village of Montefalco. The resulting wine, Sagrantino di Montefalco, is an age-worthy, brawny, brambly red, bursting with jammy, blackberry fruit and earthy, pine forest aromas. By law this classified wine has to be aged over three years before it can be released from the winery and Sagrantino often needs a good 5-10 more years in bottle before it reaches its peak. Incidentally these wines often fall under the radar in the scene of high-end, age-begging, Italian reds, giving them an almost cult-classic appeal. They are undoubtedly worth the wait!
Rosso di Montefalco, on the other had, is composed mainly of Sangiovese and is a more fruit-driven, quaffable wine to enjoy while waiting for the Sagrantinos to mellow out.
Among its green mountains, perched upon a high cliff in the province of Terni, sits the town of Orvieto. Orvieto, the wine, is a blend of at least 60% Trebbiano in combination with Grechetto, with the possible addition of other local white varieties. Orvieto is the center of Umbria’s white wine production—and anchor of the region’s entire wine scene—producing over two thirds of Umbria’s wine. A great Orvieto will have clean aromas and flavors of green apple, melon and citrus, and have a crisp, mineral-dominant finish.