Malcolm Jolley discovers Weinert…
Weinert Mendoza Cabernet Sauvignon 2008 – $27.95, LCBO# 656363
It’s a wonderful thing when the first taste of wine grabs your attention and focuses your senses and intellect immediately on the contents of your glass. A coup de foudre: lightning has struck, and it’s love at first taste. Ah, but like most nascent love affairs it more often than not turns out to be bittersweet. After that life changing series of sips comes the cold realization that buying a case of what you’re tasting would mean missing a mortgage payment and the love is star-crossed.
And yet there are still a few beautiful discoveries to be had whose cost can be justified and rationalized. The 2008 Weinert Cabernet Sauvignon is just such a wine. At $27.95 it’s not cheap, and well over the price ceiling for everyday wine in my house. But for a grab your attention wine, suitable for a good Friday night steak and decompression dinner with someone you love, or at least feel is worthy of sharing a great bottle of wine with, it’s worth every penny and more.
The English critic Bartholomew Broadbent calls Weinert the Château Musar of Mendoza. I think he’s right in the sense that the 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon seems to perfectly straddle the difference between New and Old World styles, like the famous Lebanese wine does. Here is a big jammy black fruited wine that would please the banker who loves Napa. But here is also some silky but certainly present tannins, a bit of must, possibly a touch of Brett and volatile acidity, and herbal secondary notes that would also please the corporate lawyer with a cellar full of Bordeaux and Châteauneuf. This wine tastes fancy and sophisticated. And it’s eleven years old, though full of lifeforce, and it’s under $30. Treat yourself, you deserve it.
