Obtuse pruny petal on a raisin-reduction core, not the darkest ruby on the planet, but glass-staining. Awkward warm-tea nose, a shrill flabbiness not quite fleshy fruit and not quite concentrated, thin but still sicky-sweet. Is that possible? Of course it is. It’s Paso.
A most interesting and awkward nose–not smelling like any Cabernet I have had in my life and seriously taking chunks out of the whole *Paso as world-class* Cabernet argument. Not a day goes by that I do not read the 99 glowing about how Paso represents the finest of California and then you get a bottle of this in front of you–NOT a slacker winery, I might add–and anybody with a three-digit wine-IQ is left staring quizzically at the glass. What are they thinking? This doesn’t smell like any Cabernet over 5 dollars in the state.
If you can get past the watery oxidation and kool-aid fruit in the nose, you should probably taste it. Heat hits almost first–even before the fat pond-water fruit. Fruit flat and lifeless, acid a combination of artificial and non-existent, this strange burnt-roasted spectre of nothingness is chemically and contrived, fake beyond description. I’m done with this wine. Literally THE worst wine I have had this year. Nobody should put this in their mouth.
2017 HEARST RANCH ‘Bunkhouse’ Cabernet Sauvignon Paso Robles 14.8
Stephen McConnell 