2007 Hourglass Cabernet Sauvignon
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Tasting notes
(15.5% alcohol): Saturated medium ruby. Blackberry and blueberry aromas are enlivened by stony minerality. Fruit-driven, juicy wine, with its high-pitched blueberry and licorice flavors coming across as slightly high-toned but still tightly wound. Showed some medicinal cherry with aeration. Nothing sloppy or oxidative about this Cabernet: au contraire . Thanks in part to its healthy acidity, I would never have guessed this wine's high octane level. Less plush than usual for this bottling but more ageworthy than I originally predicted as it has burned off much of its baby fat without losing its lovely fruit. The tannins grow dustier as the wine opens in the glass.
Critic scores
Average Score
Robert Parker
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
More reviews and scores
(15.5% alcohol) Full medium ruby-red. Aromas of blueberry liqueur, currant, licorice and fruitcake; exotic and high-toned. Then lush, sweet and fat with fruit; the most concentrated of these wines and the least obviously warm. But this very ripe and high-toned wine is not for burying in the cellar. Finishes with broad, building tannins.
Hourglass’s flagship wine, the 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon is one of their strongest efforts to date. An inky/purple color is followed by subtle scents of barbecue smoke, black currants, black cherries, licorice, and a hint of oak. Full-bodied, generously endowed, and deep with loads of concentration, purity, and texture, it is approachable now, but should evolve for 20-25 years. This is an impressive group of elegant, concentrated, well-balanced reds. Hourglass has fashioned one of the most stunning Cabernet Francs of the vintage. Tel. (707) 968-9332; Fax (707) 968-9337