Cain Cuvee

So we finished up the La Posta Friday night with a couple of steaks from Texas Roadhouse (sometimes it is just so much easier to pick up food rather than cook it).  After we finished dinner and the wine, Pris opened up a bottle of Cain Cuvée NV7 from Napa Valley to work on.  The Cain Cuvée NV7 was a recommendation from Mike Jones on one of our trips to Jones Liquor, and let me say it was a great call; this is an incredible wine.

A quick note on the Cuvée before going on to how it tastes, because the taste is so tied to its composition.  This particular wine is made up of 46% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Cabernet Franc, and 9% Petit Verdot.  What's more though, the grapes also come from the 2006 and 2007 harvests (but mostly 2007, hence NV7 nomenclature).  In other words, this is blend of blends.

The Cain Cuvée NV7 had a very complex nose with a heavy alcohol content that took a bit to subside.  As complex as the nose was, the wine was equally complex on the palate with heavy fruit and a smooth, even silky finish.  The NV7 was really smooth, but more on that later.  There was a distinct earthiness to the wine, which was likely due to the heavy clay soil the Merlot grapes were grown in.  The Cuvée was perfectly balanced all the way around.

Due to the smoothness of the wine, Pris cruised through her glass in no time.  I nursed mine, and was actually really glad I did.  As the time passed the wine really opened up and became noticeably lighter and refreshing.  The lightness was surprising given the heaviness of the Merlot and Cabernet grapes.  Great wine, one that is now gone, so Pris and I are going to have to restock at some point in the near future.

Normally the flavor of wine changes as it oxidizes, but the NV7 really changed as it breathed in the glass. This is a great wine that you want to use a decanter for, or let it breathe for several hours.  Our bottle wasn't decanted, but the next one will be.

The Cain Cuvée NV7 can be found at Jones Liquors, if they still have it in stock.  It ran about $37 for the bottle.  For more information on the wine and winery you can go to: www.cainfive.com.