Day 1: Right Hook Cabernet Sauvignon (Thracian Lowlands, PGI)
Wine Location: Bulgaria (Thracian Lowlands, PGI) (imported by Flying Blue imports)
Ladies and Gentlemen, it’s that time of year again, Advent season – which means a new Wine Advent calendar. This time, my lovely wife went to Costco and picked up their calendar, which features 375 ml bottles, meaning that I’ll have plenty of wine to drink, especially if my wife isn’t overly fond of it… In other words, I’ll be polishing off a lot of reds. 🙂
The first wine in Costco’s Wine “Advent-ure” Calendar was quite the punchy surprise (pun kinda intended). As you can see from the pic Right Hook Cabernet Sauvignon is a wine made in Bulgaria. In the days of the Soviet Union, Bulgaria apparently was the fourth largest wine producing region in the world, according to Wine Folly, although much of it was for Soviet citizens only and inaccessible to the West. Now Bulgarian wines are more accessible to the world and I think the world is much the better for it.
Don’t let the name or label of this wine fool you – Right Hook is assertive but it is not overly aggressive; it is not a jammy, heavily oaky affair. It is rather an elegant wine, solidly balanced with medium body, possessing flavors of fresh cherries and hints of vanilla and cassis spices that linger on to the finish. The tannins are rather soft, but they do have a bit of a presence, giving solidity to the wine structure. The tasting notes on the Wine Adventure Site recommends pairing this “flavorful wine with flavorful foods”, like potatoes au gratin and pork cutlets.
I didn’t have either of those, but I did have leftover pizza. And it worked very well. The wine stood up well to the pizza and left a pleasant cherry finish in my mouth afterwards. So if you are tired of thick flavored, heavily oaked Cabs – no offense to those of you who do like such wines – I enjoy them as well – and want a Cab Sauv that while softer, still retains some substance, like Muhammad Ali you can’t go wrong with a good Right Hook.
(Sorry, couldn’t resist) 😀
Ed's Wineglass Adventures 