One of the greatest bargains in California BDX-blends AND probably one the closest things to *Napa* you are going to taste on the Central Coast. Every time I taste one of these it blows me away, and having bought several myself, I KNOW what a steal they are. Central Coast Cabernet continues to add 75, 90, buck-25 bottles to the list daily, and when you find something of THIS quality for half that, you don’t miss out.
Dark roasted glass-staining crimson, no sediment, black at the core and clear ruby at the rim. Ridiculous ripe fruit in the nose, a black cherry elixir so heady and integrated it is impossible to separate the berry syrup from the dank mint from the rich oak from the lavish build-up to tannin. The herbaceousness and chalky newsprint and mire are clean and mild, but relentless. Here at an early mid-point of its life, it is still dealing out vibrant luxury–as tertiary is still a few years away.
The sweet, thick berry overwhelms the intake. Dense and chewy, the smoky haze of oak melds perfectly from over the fruit to the acidic underpinnings quickly becoming apparent below. The middle has a bit of a pause in it–and I am guessing Merlot-dominance. Green-briar, hardwood sawdust, and the blueberry at the bottom of yogurt fill the wine start-to-finish, and the tannin is a cinnamon- and nutmeg-infused cat’s tongue on 5 o’clock shadow. Tobacco tints the final fruit memories hand-in-hand with the structure and a bit of heat.
The days of 50-dollar Happy Canyon’s are numbered, people, and will soon go the way of $50 Napa cab. The kind of prices they are getting for fruit down there prohibits it. Buy as much of this wine as you can afford.
2014 DEOVLET WINES ‘Sonny Boy’ MT/cab Happy Canyon Santa Ynez Valley Santa Barbara Co. 14.8
Stephen McConnell 