The Wines of This Week's Tasting:
Cabernet - Different Roots, Fresh Styles
October 8, 2025
Cabernets
2022 Beau Vigne Cabernet Sauvignon
One of our best values in Napa-style cabernet deserves a second taste. Has blended wines from vineyards in Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino, and Lake counties into a wine with the feel of a lighter-to-medium-bodied Napa cab with the poise and structure of a Bordeaux Cru Bourgeois.
It is nearly all Cabernet with small amounts of Malbec and Merlot. It spent 16 months in 100% French oak. It is as smooth as Caymus but with less obtrusive oak. It has a good depth of juicy fruit with a light underlying structure. It gets better with air and finishes dry—class and substance well above its price.
Aroma: light and fresh, soft, more herbal than most, smooth, cacao, black cherry. Mouth: clean light on the attack, smooth, Napa -French in style, sweet currant fruit, fine tannins on a long finish; Very Good Plus $23.99; Case, $19.99
2022 Catena San Carlos Cabernet Franc
If Cabernet Sauvignon often evokes dark chocolate or mocha, this Argentine comes across as pure cocoa, which gives it a high-toned, finely grained elegance that is immediately appealing to both critics and us. An accurate and delicious rendition of Cabernet Franc that benefits from airing ahead of drinking.
Vinous “This garnet wine with a purplish sheen offers aromas of ash, roasted red pepper, and cassis, with a subtle leafy undertone. Creamy and juicy, taut and fine”
Wine Advocate “opens on a slightly reserved note, gradually unfurling red-fruited, chocolate-tinged aromas that surround a core of crushed stones. The palate exudes the polished, vibrant, and lively texture that permeates this range, closing with a dense, taut, and focused finish that expands with aeration.”
Aroma: Heady and herbal, rather rich and full; Mouth: Clean, light, dry cocoa notes, tight, smooth, finely delineated, savory,smooth; Very Good-Excellent? $26.99; Case, $22.94
2020 Concha y Toro Cabernet Sauvignon Terrunyo
This is not the Chilean Concha y Toro you see in supermarkets. For their Terrunyo, they select fruit from their old high-altitude vineyard near the foothills of the Andes and age the wine for 18 months in French oak to make a wine of extraordinarily balanced articulation. Hot days and cold nights give superb ripeness with defining acidity.
Color: very dark purple; Aroma: sweet oak, heady, rather full, lightly herbal, nice intensity; Mouth: clean, direct, firm, fine soft acid, firm after tannins, fine light structure, long finish, elegant; Very Good - Excellent $35; Case, $29.95
2023 Andrew Will Cabernet Sauvignon Two Blondes Vineyard
The two blondes are the female partners of this Yakima, Washington vineyard. Andrew Will crafts wines of depth and finesse. This version is no exception.
Critic Owen Bargreen loved it: “inky in the glass, delivering violets, tar, anise, and black currant flavors. This is soft, round, and generous on the mouth, with bright underlying acidity. Medium to full-bodied and full of verve, enjoy now and over the next fifteen years to come.”
Color: very dark, heady; Aroma: higher toned to start, then heady, rich, pretty dark, lightly heady; Very Good -Excllent$45; Case, $37.99
2019 Stonestreet Cabernet Sauvignon Monument Ridge Alexander Valley
Nicely balanced and complex, this wine melds generous fruit with fine tannins.
“Bright purple fruit with lifted notes of bramble berries, violets, and bergamot. The palate is full-bodied with chewy tannins, a lush mouthfeel, fine acidity, and notes of dark plums, cocoa, sage, and red peppercorns.”
Color: very dark, opaque; Aroma: very dark, full, heady, and rounded, with deep plum-currant and cocoa notes; Mouth: thick, bright, clean, and fine, with a back of intense, lush, rather full fruit, and a hint of mineral acid, good length. Very Good - Excellent $54; Case, $45.95
2021 Foley & Johnson Cabernet Sauvignon Napa
Not to be confused with Robert Foley, this Rutherford-based estate's version is blessedly not a behemoth, but is a surprisingly svelte and elegant rendition of Napa Cabernet, which we love for its pure, smooth, dark fruit.
Wine Spectator. A solid version, with plum pâte de fruit, black cherry reduction, and boysenberry paste flavors that form the core. The frankly toasty finish has nice cut, flanked by apple wood and licorice root notes.”
Color: very dark; Aroma: heady sweet cedar, very dark; Mouth bright, clean; lifted, very pure sweet intensity, fine acid long, fine tannins; Very Good - Excellent $64; Case, $54.
October Cabernet Case Two each of the wines $455
October Cabernet Pack One each of the wines $210
Or mix your own, any twelve of the above wines at their case prices
Order by phone at 617.367.8605, or reserve here: order@federalwine.com
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- Len Rothenberg
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