2005 Eagle Eye, Muscat Canelli, Napa Valley, California

Terry post:

Brand matters. The quality of the product, its price and how it is represented to the public - when bundled up equals brand. Think about the great brands: Coke-a-Cola, Apple, Disney and Caterpillar: each has a well-defined brand image which they closely control to ensure a consistent unambiguous message to the consumer. A good brand is easily identified. So too is a less

than good brand.

So. Why a short discussion about "brand" when this is a blog site about wine? Well, the answer to that can be found in the labeling of the 2005 Eagle Eye, Muscat Canelli. This is not the label of a serious winery and it send entirely the wrong message to the buying public. In a competitive wine market the last thing a wine producer wants is to be is above average in price and below average in brand.

My impressions: Flowers perfume the nose. Overwhelming - pleasantly so - dose of lychee with a moderate finish. Nicely balanced for a Muscat. My immediate though when sipping the wine was that it would be great with hot Thai or Indian curries. This is far-and-away the most appealing Muscat I've ever enjoyed and not just for sipping poolside. Recommended.

Second thoughts: Of course, wine labeling does not need to be overly serious. Australian critter wines have proven that a light-hearted take on wine can be successful. But in those cases, the wines were aimed squarely at the younger wine buyers for whom the playfulness of the brand was an asset.

Eagle Eye makes some fine wine. I was impressed with this Muscat and have also been impressed with their red blend, "Voluptuous". It is sad then when I all-too-often see bottles of Eagle Eye in the discount bin at the wine shops - customers unsure what to make of the brand.

Maybe I am making too much of a fuss about their branding choices. But ask yourself after visiting their web site: Is this a brand that you'd invest $20 to $40 to sample their product?

$21.99 from the winery. Less in the discount bins.

100% Muscat.

~ Terry

2007 SKN Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley

Terry Post:

Gotta love the name: SKN which is an abbreviation for Screw Kappa Napa. I have been aware of the brand for a few years and first tried a SKN Sauvignon Blanc a last year.

SKN is another of several affordable down-market brands for Don Sebastiani & Sons. Other DS&S brands include: Smoking Loon, Mia's Kitchen, b-Side and and Pennywise.

My impression: Garnet to dark plum color. Red fruit and a hit (not unpleasantly so) of grass across the palate. Finished by long, soft, and lingering tannins on the dark berries. Very pleasant. It drinks like a more expensive Napa Valley cabernet sauvignon.

I am serving this wine with Beef Burgundy this evening. I think it would pair nicely with all of the typical pairings: beef, bison, lamb etc.

I paid $8.99 for my bottle at Dover Air Force base package store. Locally, I have seen it priced at $9.99 and $10.99 - so they are trying hard to keep it affordable. At this price and quality, the 2007 SKN Cabernet Sauvignon is an outstanding value.

~ Terry

2007 Provenance Sauvignon Blanc, Napa Valley California

Terry post:

This is another in a series of posts regarding good or great wines to be found in restaurants for $30 or less.

From time-to-time we'd find a really good wine at a really good price and we'd feature it on the wine list. We'd highlight the name in bold print and list it as
a, "Restaurant 213 BEST VALUE Selection". Now, our intention was to highlight those wines which were good, good with food, and a good (or great) value

Funny thing about customers: sometimes they don't pay any attention to what you tell them.

In previous postings I have highlighted the fact that virtually every restaurant's wine list contains a few clunkers. It isn't intentional. It just happens. Perhaps that was the issue when we highlighted this wine - that our customers thought we were trying to pull a fast-one on them by discounting a clunker. That certainly wasn't our intention. It was a great wine. In fact, sauvignon blanc's generally do quite well but this one didn't sell well as long as we featured it as a "Best Value". Curious. Once we took it off that feature, its sales picked up.

My impressions: Fragrant pear, lemons and wet stone notes. Very acidic. Medium bodied with the pears and herbs at the finish. We sold it for $27 per bottle (restaurant price, should be lower at the wine shop) and it was, in my opinion, a great value. There were over 12,000 cases of this wine producted, so it should not be too difficult to find.

As is typical with sauvignon blancs, this one is wonderful with most any white meat (fish, chicken, pork) but it would not stand up well to red meats. While very acidic for a sauvignon blanc, I still would not pair this with any dish whose base featured butter or cream.

My personal favorite pairing of this wine is with oysters broiled, Rockefeller or raw on the half shell.

~ Terry