The Collection Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 (Target) is a $9.99 Target exclusive sourced from vineyards in California. Target also offers their California Roots line of $5.00 wines, which I thought were “ok” but not anything special. It is hard to be too critical of a decent five buck wine. Should we expect a wine twice as good for ten dollars? Target doesn't give a great deal of information on The Collection, so lets see what we can figure out from the bottle. The back label shows a winery from Manteca, California (Lodi), the winery name was created just for these particular wines. There is a large and very good, family owned vineyards and winery in Manteca, they have produced custom wines for Trader Joe's and I think, ALDIs. They also produce many retail wine labels on their own that are excellent value wines. I can't be completely sure that they produced The Collection Cabernet Sauvignon 2016, but if they did that is a good sign. This is a 2016 vintage Cabernet Sauvignon, which gives a wine released in March of 2019 some decent bottle age. Cabernet Sauvignon is a wine that takes some time to come together, you expect some sort of oak conditioning to be well-integrated into the flavor profile and the tannins to reasonably smooth. That takes some aging to complete and The Collection Cab doesn't skimp. The alcohol content is a very California, 14.5%. Tasting Notes The color is a dark, but still see-thru black cherry red. The nose is blackberries, a touch of herbs, a little spice, a little chocolate and a little vanilla. This wine has medium + body, with balanced flavors and decent structure. It tastes of blackberries, French vanilla, tart cranberry, and black pepper. The mid-palate adds a little Altoids spice, raspberry, and a touch of milk chocolate. The tannins do not bite, but provide solid structure, many value-priced Red wines try to hide their tannins, not here. The acidity is balanced, this can be a food wine, steaks on the grill anyone? The finish starts off strong, but is a little short. Summary * The Collection Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 is very competitive with Cabs in the value price category * Exclusive store brands have price advantages over regular retail wines, this $9.99 Cab Sauv is equal to Cabs in the $13 to $14 range * The Collection Cabernet Sauvignon is $9.99 and, yes, it is twice as good as the $5.00 Target California Roots Cab Sauvignon
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