I’ve always said San Antonio Valley was one of the great undiscovered wine regions of California and this is one I can endorse fairly wholeheartedly from this region. I’ve had a few that were pretty rough and unpolished and at the nether ends of red wine extremes if you know what I mean. But this wine, I could sell pallets of this shit.
Beautiful color, beautiful density massive granite nose riddled with sweet blackberry fruit on raw meat and alcohol. The palate is ridiculously un-Paso, but it also does not reflect some of the vapid Monterey County Cabernets I’ve had. Disgusting smokey tarry tannic brilliance chimes in chewingly after and during the dense ripe fruit.
This thing is 14-9 if it’s a day and a little unbalanced in the finish but I’m gonna give it a pass this once because it’s Sunday night and you’ve learned Sunday night wines get a bit of a softball. I have no idea where this came from, I have no idea what it costs but if it is available around you it’s definitely something that will appeal to a vast swath of the wine drinking public. That probably means you and most of you there and all of you over there. You there, you won’t like it. Neither will you over there oh and you, you definitely won’t like it but the rest of you, you’re going to love this wine.
2012 BALENTINE FAMILY VINEYARDS Lineshack Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon San Antonio Valley Monterey County Central Coast California 15.5
Stephen McConnell 