I’m thankful one of these wines comes along once in a while. It’s important to fully grasp what the 99 drink–especially if you are into any sort of wine marketing. Oh sure, we all know what they drink and roll our eyes and nod uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh when they talk to us, but as wine people, we tent to surround ourselves with people who drink just like us, while stocking the shelves and going to the bank serving people who drink things like this. It’s important to taste one of these things every few years to fully grasp what serves the 99 palate. It smells like chocolate cake. The taste is so ridiculously sweet I may need new fillings. It punctuates straight into your temples a shocking sweetness almost impossible to describe. I feel a glass or two of this would have dire consequences the next day. Of course, it descends into harsh bitter burn late-middle, because people drinking this KNOW Cabernet is harsh and terrible and therefore MUST be dreadful to swallow. It dries out the mouth in an un-complex way which causes blithering desperate swallows of acrid nothingness and chemical burn. All through, it is an awakening juncture of housewife grip and brunch giggles with cheese plates and bacon-wrapped jalapenos and stuffed portabellas at the wine bar where sophistication rules. Based on the texture, I feel this is where the bullshit *purple-stained-lips* influencer loves to reference comes from. What is this made from??? I would love to see the recipe. And most people reading this KNOW there is a recipe. It is not wine. It is a concoction aimed straight at ONE PERSON. This wine DEFINES Paso Robles. And the people who go there.

(I can’t find a vintage) AUSTIN HOPE ‘Harvester’ #cabernetsauvignon #pasorobles 13.9