2001 Cabs - Flora Vs. Cobblestone

[oostexan]

Yeah, I am a highly competitive guy...so I enjoy pitting two similarly priced wines against one another and doing a blind tasting. Keeps things fun around this old red blooded Texan's house, especially when its 90 to 100 plus degress outside.

So...in the first corner we have the tried and true 2001 Flora Springs Napa Cabernet that I get for 19.99 on winex.com. If I were to die soon, the coroner would find one heck of a lot of Flora Springs cab in my liver. Anyway, in the other corner the challenger is the 2001 Cobblestone Napa Cabernet that Wine Spectation annoited with a whopping score of 92 points!! Thats a big number folks. I got the Cobblestone for 25 pesos, I mean dollars. Whatever. You get the point. They cost the same amount...

The professional tasters include yours truly, my loving and devoted wifey who teases me endlessly about being a wine snob but is honestly more picky about wine than I am, and my mother in law (whose company I enjoy much better after doing a couple bottles of Cab - wink, wink). We thought it important to have good vittles to rinse the above vino down with fresh palates...so I put a couple ribeyes on the grill to "get'er done". Yeah, I did some fresh corn on the cob, some grilled onions, fresh green beans, etc. We ain't running no begginers class here in the Big D. We know what it takes to rinse down a Cab, or the other way around, whatever...

The results...a unanimous decision...the reigning heavyweight of the 30 dollar Napa Cab continues to be the 2001 Flora Springs Napa Cabernet. This was a close fight folks, but the wonderful aromas blackberry and casis and densly concentrated fruit of this wine just continues to be a winner.

The Cobblestone is a great wine, I am pleased to have a half a case and I know both wines still have a few years to go before they peak, but this Flora wins points with being a touch more flavorful and nuanced than anything I put it up against.

As my mother in law says - "this bottle just seems to have a taste that makes you want more."

Well I'll be damned if I don't agree...

Mark

[Innkeeper]

Sounds like a fantastic evening Mark. Have you named any of your kids Flora?

[winoweenie]

No but his first-born son is named Fauna Oos. WW [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/wink.gif[/img].....As can be seen from my posts, Flora has been a favorite of mine since their 1st vintage in 1978. WW