We took advantage of the full-on spring weather and broke out the barbee on Tuesday and nothing calls out for a nice, big red than a steak on the BBQ. Can it be that spring has really sprung? We chose another South African cab to go with the steaks since the cab served at our recent Wine Boyz evening was a bit of a hit.
#17 - 2005 Graceland Cabernet Sauvignon (Stellenbosch - South Africa)
We'd actually taken a bottle of this wine to a dinner party the other month but it was corked. We got it replaced at the liquor store but the replacement likely came from the same shipment, so I thought we should drink it earlier on the off chance that this one might be bad as well.
Well, the wine was fine. Better than fine, in fact. South Africa isn't the first wine producing region I think of with cab, but maybe we need to think of it a bit more.
I read that Graceland doesn't filter or fine its wine and that may have added to the intensity of the aroma and flavour, but I wouldn't hesitate to reach for this bottle again - despite the earlier bad experience.
The picture added to this post doesn't do justice to the stylish packaging of this wine. The bottle features a copy of Jean Baptiste Regnault's 3 Graces painting that hangs in the Louvre. I'm not one that is often motivated to buy because of the look of a bottle - and wasn't here - but this wine is as classy as the label.
Another fact about the winery that's interesting is that the winery "learned" that you don't go up against the memory of Elvis while State-side. You won't find this bottle or any other varietal by the winery under this name in the US. "Graceland" will be nothing other than the place that Elvis lived and died - unless you licence the name - and it was already taken. Does anyone know if Elvis was even a wine-drinking kind of guy?
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