Ready to toast to the red, white and blue with a wine that’s as patriotic as it gets? Then join me, Domain Dave from ChiefWineFighter.com, as we uncork the Federalist Ben Franklin Lodi, a Cabernet Sauvignon 2021. This episode is all about an American classic, from the label that sports an image of a suave Ben Franklin against the backdrop of our star-spangled banner, to the fascinating backstory behind the brand, Trilado Wines, known for making Pinagrisio a household name in the U.S.
Let’s savor together the complex bouquet of this wine, from the ripe, juicy flavors to the undertones of dark chocolate, toasty vanilla, black licorice, and a hint of red grapes, black cherry, and jammy raspberry. I’m sharing not just my tasting notes, but the secret behind this wine’s unique profile: its 16-month journey in oak barrels and the meticulous extraction process. But that’s not all. We’ll also explore why Lodi is a go-to place for value-priced wines. So, if you’re planning a summer soiree or simply enjoy discovering new wines, this one promises to be both a treat for your palate and a great conversation starter.
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Speaker 1
0:06
Welcome again to another ChiefWineFightercom podcast . This is Domain Dave from ChiefWineFightercom , and what we do is we write up a review on the ChiefWineFightercom website and then , when we put that down , we plug in the microphone and here we are . and today , and just in time for the 4th of July and this is , i think , the 30th of June is when this is being recorded We have the Federalist Ben Franklin Lodi , cabernet Sauvignon 2021 . It's a special edition and good thinking , because it's there for the summer and it's got a American flag motif with a picture of Ben Franklin on the label , looking like in debonair , and it's Cabernet Sauvignon and it's . You know , actually it was in the looker store and there wasn't anything holiday oriented . There used to be people used to like do wraps on bottles and stuff , but everything's been boring lately . And now here we got the Federalist .
Speaker 1
1:15
Federalist is a brand from Trilado Wines . They've been around a while . They're the people that well , if you don't know who they are and you like Pinagrisio , you should thank them . They brought in Santa Maria to Pinagrisio when nobody drank Pinagrisio , and now everybody drinks Pinagrisio and they're the people that broke it into the market . They're , you know , that's . That's something to say . Not everybody starts a trend and they did , and this is their Federalist , is their USA USA wine . I think the original ones used to be from Dry Creek , if I'm not mistaken . I think we've done a couple of these over the years and now it's from Lodi .
Speaker 1
1:56
And if you ask me if I'm doing a value price wine , this is the one I found for 10.99 and on the internet it's kind of weird because the pricing is from 10 dollars to 20 dollars . I mean , that's usually you don't see that . Usually you see everything bunched within a dollar or two because you know you don't want the cheapest guy to make all the sales and everybody else doesn't sell anything . But I'm gonna take a sip here . So this is a wine that I'm not sure I think I'd list for like 20 dollars on their website and it's it's been 16 months in oak barrels , which is kind of interesting because value price cabinet is longer . It's in the . It was on skins . I'm going a little ahead of myself was on skins for 14 full days , which which going to get all the , the skin in the and the juices all together and all the goodness that's in those skins . All the tans , all the chemicals are going into the wine , like a , a rosé wine , is on skins for three hours , two hours , just enough . Pink spool them . But the longer things are on skin , longer things are extracted , the longer it takes for the wine to be ready to sell . So you don't see a lot of that happening in value price wines . And here this wine was an oak barrel for 15 months and 35 percent of the barrels were brand new . The rest were , you know , various used barrels , and that too was kind of a high percentage , because you don't want these are drinking now wines . When you get it you want it to be ready to go and you don't want the oak to be too much , too little , you want it to be just right . So they went out of their way to kind of make this cabinet the way you're supposed to make cabinet in california , but and not charge the regular price for I don't think .
Speaker 1
3:55
No sip , this is a juicy barbeque , something about a fire pit wine . You know it's uh , you know there's some cabinet , some neons it's like , you know , sitting in a leather chair smoking a Cuban cigar . Now this is having some fun . Outside wine . It's got ripe , juicy flavors , it's got some spice , it's got some of that extracted dark chocolate . You know that 78% cocoa . You know expensive ones . It's got toasty vanilla . It's got some , uh , black licorice . Then it's got some more , maybe red grapes . It's got some black cherry and some jammy raspberry not sweet but jammy . Tannins are kind of dusty and they're there , but they kind of add some structure and some interest . This is a pretty good cabinet . So you know , especially , you know if you're you're you're throwing down something on the grill , it doesn't matter what , um , maybe not . Well , if it's spicy enough , it doesn't really matter . I mean you can do like shrimp or even uh , salmon or something , and uh , that normally would ask for a white wine . But if you're gonna spice it up a little bit , this would do just fine because it's not over , it's not over the top or anything . This is a nicely balanced uh savione , uh cabinet .
Speaker 1
5:21
Savione and Lodi is this is from Lodi and that's a great place for value-priced wines , because I think you can get a better quality grape and Lodi . Then you can . If you go to a high end place and kind of get one that's , you know , a little bit less uh money . I mean I think you're pulling a better . There's some good grapes in Lodi , there's some good winemakers and they named the name of the winery that made the wine for um , for to lotto , for the uh , the federalist wines , and they have a full line . They have everything , even barrel aged wines or whiskey barrel aged wines . But I never heard of the and I couldn't find anything about that winery . But there's some winery out there that was making this wine for them , or at least a section of unknown winery , and that's really good .
Speaker 1
6:07
Lodi has been in my mind is making uh , some good Cabernets for like the last five years where I've noticed that used to be all Zinfandel's and uh , actually , uh , federalist has a Zinfandel too . I haven't been that crazy about Zinfandel lately and the Cabernet's kind of taking its place , especially from Lodi . Taking another step , it's one of those sipping wines . Yeah , it's nice , it's it's a crowd pleaser . It's um , it'll go great with food . It has all the uh , all of the uh , all the edge , all the , all the things you need for it to pair well , to clean , funds your palate and then take , get you ready for the next sip . So the three cheers for the red , white and blue , the Federalist , ben Franken , cabernet Sauvignon 2021 . That's it for me . Domain Dave , cheap wine finder . Uh , keep it cheap . Stay safe , don't blow your finger off . You shoot your eye out and I'll talk to you after the fourth . Bye .
