Now THIS is what I call a ‘conversation wine’. Someone brings it to a party, you open it and pour it in your glass, take a big whiff and go “Wow! That is really quite perfect!” And then you take a taste and you are all, “Oh wow! That actually has a lot of really great cab things going on” and then someone comes over to talk to you and you get all wrapped up in conversation and you just keep sipping and sipping like the frog in the pan as it slowly approaches boiling and somewhere between there and the next time you get a chance to smell and taste it, it has just disintegrated into absolute nothingness. So you pour a fresh splash and duck into a side room where Aunt Maureen’s recent bath in Chanel No. 5 is not quite so obvious and reach longingly into your glass with your nose and yes, you were right the first time: It is absolutely the most perfect, flawless cabernet on the planet. It just completely has no flaws. There are no rough edges, there are no high points, there are no obtuse nuances, it isn’t especially deep–it isn’t especially shallow. It is neither fruit-FWD or deep, sultry and ripe. It is not overtly tannic or acidic. It is likewise not hi-pH or flabby. There is just plain EVERYTHING–and NOTHING going on all through it. It is the most perfect lab-wine ever created. It is just SO uninteresting. Smooth and supple, ripe and finessed–and the whole time you feel like you are test-driving a Cadillac Cimarron. Just an absolutely perfectly dreadful wine.
2010 TOLOSA Cabernet Sauvignon Paso Robles 14.1
Stephen McConnell 