Ready to taste some wines? We have some good ones today!

Today we are tasting some wines, well I’m tasting them, you get to watch. We have a couple of new ones from 19 Crimes (including 19 Crimes Uprising), I have a Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand and I have a really nice cab. from Knights Valley.

19 Crimes Hard Chard

So we will start with the Chardonnay. This is 19 Crimes Hard Chard, it is from Australia. It is 15% alcohol so it has a little bit of a kick to it. There is a little butter creaminess on the nose. It’s really well-balanced wine.

A little bit of fruitiness with some tropical notes to it, but with some heavy cream butter flavors as well. But not overly so in either direction. You will hear some people talk about Chardonnay is being too buttery, too oaky or too light, an unoaked Chardonnay is going to be light and fruity. This is kinda right in the middle, great, really well-made wine. Very light acidity in the finish. Overall, a very nice wine.

Matua Sauvignon Blanc

Next up we have the Matua Sauvignon Blanc. This is a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc from the Marlborough region. The Marlborough region is very well known for its Sauvignon Blancs. A lot of the Sauvignon Blancs we sell in the store are from Marlborough, New Zealand.

People have really been taking these the past couple of years because of their really strong grapefruit and citrus notes and this one is no exception. I smell grapefruit right from the first sniff – a lot of grapefruit. The first thing you taste as soon as it hits your tongue is that really strong grapefruit-citrus flavors.

I can’t really taste much else to it, but I am also not a big grapefruit fan myself so that flavor is especially overpowering to me. There is a nice crisp finish which is also what a lot of people look for in the Sauvignon Blanc. If you haven’t tried it, you might want to give it a shot sometime.

19 Crimes Uprising

Next up we have another new one from 19 Crimes called The Uprising. This is a red blend, which is something they are becoming quite well known for, they already have three other red blends on the market.

The Uprising is aged for 30 days in rum barrels. After the oak barrels are used to age rum in for some period of time, 19 Crimes acquires those barrels and they age this wine in those barrels.

There’s been a little bit of a trend lately with some wines being aged in bourbon barrels. So they are trying something a little bit different with the rum. The first thing I noticed as soon as I poured it I actually got kind of a whiff of a rum, kind of a sweet alcohol note to it.

Rum is definitely strong on the nose. I also get red berry and jammy notes to it.

The ripened red berries flavors are almost to the point that they are sweet because they are overly ripened. But that dries out nicely, there is some good tannin structure to it and then the rum notes linger till the end, they are still kind of hanging out there on the tongue with the alcohol.

Overall it is a decent wine, I am sure that it will sell just as well as the other 19 Crimes red blends. It is definitely something interesting and it’s worth the try, just because it is a little bit different. And it is not a bad price for a red wine.

Beringer Knights Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

Last up we have Beringer Cabernet Sauvignon from Knights Valley. This is one of the Beringer’s higher end products. Beringer you might know from their inexpensive big, large magnum bottles of wine. They have built a reputation for themselves as being a mass market wine, but they do make some fantastic upper tier, higher quality wines. This Knights Valley Cabernet is one of them.

You get a little bit of smoke and cherries on the nose. A few earthy notes as well. Some red fruit, not jammy at all, just kind of harsh… not harsh but just very red fruit flavors upfront.

Really great tannin structure, it evolves in your mouth to dry out and leave a little bit of acidity, not too much though. The tannins are what grabs your mouth and makes it feel like it is drying out as if someone stuffed cotton balls or something in your mouth, but not as bad as that sounds. It is a good feeling for somebody who enjoys red wine.

It evolves quite a bit during the course of a sip, which we refer to as having complexity and is something you look for in a higher quality wine. The wine is also pretty heavy bodied, which is another thing that Cabernet drinkers are usually looking for.

Give Us Your Feedback Please!

So that was our show for today. We had the 19 Crimes Hard Chard from Australia, the Matua Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough, New Zealand, 19 Crimes The Uprising, red blend that was finished in rum barrels, and the Beringer Cabernet Sauvignon from Knights Valley.

Thanks very much for watching. If you have any questions or comments, we really appreciate them. I’d like to hear questions so we can answer them and make more videos. Thanks for watching, if you like this video, check out one of our other tasting videos. Hope to see you soon, cheers!

Featured Products:
Matua Sauvignon Blanc
Beringer Knights Valley Cabernet