Forman - Cabernet Sauvignon
A great wine from California: From the Forman Vineyards a Cabernet Sauvignon from 2014.
Surprises are a great thing and having a surprise package of wines in the mail every few months is also a great thing. This extends the wine horizon and sometimes there are bottles included that one would never have considered otherwise. A red wine from the Napa Valley, scratching at the 100 Euro mark would be such a wine and I don’t even want to know how the package was calculated to be still profitable. Anyway, as we know, wine in the cellar is paid for and can therefore simply be opened and this Cabernet Sauvignon from 2014 by Forman Vineyards was so interesting that it quickly left the cellar again after entering. Yes, I am aware that the wine could certainly be there for several more decades. Yes, it would certainly have matured very well there. Too late.
There wasn’t much red wine from overseas in our glass to this point, so the excitement about what to expect was particularly high. We tasted the wine for three days and poured about a third into a carafe every day, air can’t hurt in the youth. The nose is powerful but not bulky. Herbal cherry fruit, rather cool than warm, a note of fruit bread. The first sip is velvety, extremely full, pulls on the tongue, tannin, acidity, pulls on the cheeks and then just stays there. Long, longer, eternal. If the development would not interest you, you could simply drink it all during one evening. Despite the high alcohol content it’s not heavy, it’s very complex and exciting in the nose. A new aroma constantly comes around the corner, then leaves again and makes room for the successor. Cassis, blackberry and in the course of the evening the youth reveals itself with rather strong tannin.
The benefit from some time and air is immediately noticeable in the nose the second day. More open, more fruit, clearer cherry than it had first night around. In the mouth the wine is even denser, softer, a mixture of heavy, red velvet and a fresh acidity that loosens it all up. Certainly one of the longest lingering aromas in wine we had so far. The tannins are more beautiful than on the first day. Dense and soft. The wine deserves attention. Less herbs more spices, all dense and full without hitting you in the face with the wooden club. Great! If you get involved, there is really a lot to discover, much more than my experience with wine to date can describe in terms of taste associations.
The aroma remains the same on the third evening, but the mouthfeel is much softer. It is velvety full on the tongue, cassis, plum and the great tannin structure carry on forever. Simply a great wine, which I am glad to have tasted. But I don’t think I’d buy another bottle considering the price. One must be reasonable and the wine world is big and lots of discoveries are to be made.