Wine Review: Silver Oak Cab. Sauv. (2002)

[colgin]

In another thread I had mentioned that I had recently purchased a bottle of Silver Oak Cabernet Sauvignon, Alexander Valley (2002) and that I would post a brief review when I finally drank it. My wife and I finally had the bottle a couple of weeks ago with dinner.

Let me start out by saying that I used to be a big fan of Silver Oak in my nascent wine drinking days. The big, juicy, oaky California style of Cabernet that they make made for a pretty approachable style of wine for someone looking to progress from the very simple and cheap wines of their youth into something more enjoyable and sophisticated, yet not so demanding as to overwhelm a relatively unsophisticated palette. People now joke about the ABC school of wine snobbism (i.e, Anything But Cabernet and/or Anything But Chardonnay). But as a budding would-be wine connoisseur over a decade ago, I was a different ABC (All ‘Bout Cabernet and All ‘Bout Chardonnay). (Not quite true as I always loved French burgundy and certain Italian wines.) Still, that is not a bad place to start and then branch out from. Anyway, I always found that Silver Oak was a pretty reliable and consistent producer and that they exemplified pretty well the California style of Cabs. Not to say they were the best, but they were pretty good and, while not cheap, more affordable than certain bigger names. Plus, I always loved that silver label on the Alexander bottles. Personally, I always liked the Alexander better than the Napa. I think it is without question a better value at about half the price of the Napa in most years, and perhaps the value issue has clouded my judgment as to which is the better wine purely on a taste level. To me though, the Napa was always a bit too much compared to the Alexander, which for many people, due to the oakiness, is already a bit too much.

Over time I became less enamored of over-oaked wines. Silver Oak often uses 100% new oak, so their wines are always going to be oaky (name, duh) for better and for worse. So, I basically stopped drinking Silver Oak for a while after I finished my last case in 2002 or 2003, although I always had a soft spot for them in my hart.

I had read online that the 2002 Alexander was supposed to be one of their best in years. Since one of my local wine shops had it at discount I bought a bottle. The wine is basically what you would expect. 100% Cab and it displays the varietal characteristics you would expect – blackberry, currant, etc. – and has, as you would expect for a young Cab, a very nice ruby/purple color. According to the Silver Oak notes the wine was aged in 50% new oak barrels and 50% once-used oak barrels. The result, in my opinion, is a wine with the benefits of oak without the detriments of feeling like you are drinking wood chips. What stood out for me most was that this wine had terrific balance. Using less new oak undoubtedly played a part. I found a really nice forward fruit profile, well integrated with firm but not overpowering tannins. The wine did not take too long to open up (around 15 minutes to start showing its best) and was still developing nicely an hour later. Bear in mind that this is not an overwhelmingly complex wine. There are not layers and layers of flavors nor is the finish exceedingly long. But if you are looking for a good fruit driven but well balanced Cab to go with a meal for less than $75, then this does the trick really nicely. I suspect that this will age well for about 5 years, not necessarily developing more complexity but just retaining its fruit and balance. After that, as an Alexander Cab, I expect the fruit to start diminishing pretty quickly.