The 2011 Line 39 Central Coast Cabernet Sauvignon is a project involving Roy Cecchetti and Bob Broman. Bob Broman is the chief winemaker and he has been the winemaker at Stag’s Leap (on the high end) and Redtree (on the inexpensive side), as well as other projects in his career. The grapes are sourced from several vineyards in California’s Central Coast (an area that includes Paso Robles, Santa Barbara, Monterey as well as 27 other AVA’s), getting deals on grapes from contacts that they have made over the years. The name Line 39 refers to the Parallel that runs thru the North Coast grape growing AVA. Since this is the 2011 vintage, this is a young “drink it now” Cabernet and the alcohol content is 13.5%.
The color, deep dark blood plasma red with black highlights. It has a solid Cabernet Sauvignon nose, blackberry, cherry, licorice, a little freshly mown lawn and some Nestle’s Quik powder. A medium bodied wine, smooth upfront, with good fresh fruit flavors and a nice rougher edge on the mid palate. It starts with sour cherry, strawberry, plum underlined with a touch of chocolate and vanilla. The mid palate brings black pepper, Altoid’s spice and soft blueberries in fresh cream. The tannins are mainly soft, but have a little edge, just enough to give the wine some structure and the acidity is balanced, but strong enough to help the subtle finish linger for a decent amount of time.
What more can you ask for, here is a $10 California Cabernet Sauvignon, made by folks who really know how to produce California Cabernet Sauvignon. Rich, juicy, with enough complexity and depth to keep things interesting, this is a good wine to pour when cooking beef or pork out on the patio grill. It was only a few years ago that California Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon were 2 grape varieties that you didn’t want to go to cheap on, there was a huge fall off after you went below 15 to 20 bucks. But that is gone now, ten bucks gets you a solid Cabernet Sauvignon (and Pinot Noir) if you know the right producers.
