You're listening to Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. I'm Greg. I do communications at Binny's in the room with me as usual. Pat, spirits. Roger, beer. And jumping on the podcast for the second time, bringing all kinds of insightful wine knowledge. Jason. Yeah, this is Jason. Here to talk about wine. Cool. Last time you talked about Grenache, which is your dark passion of wine. Okay, I'll admit to it. I'll come to it. But today you're here to talk about a much more traditionally handsome gentleman. What is it? Cabernet. Cabernet. That being said, of course, I do love Grenache, love my Syrah, I love my Pinot, but you have to give respect to Cab. There is one red grape that brings people into wine, it's Cab. Yeah, I was going to say, you ask any American, at least, to name a wine grape, I would guess the vast majority would say Cabernet first, right? Yeah, it's almost a brand name. As much as I'll fight it, you got to pay credit to it. There are Cabs that I do like, you might taste one or two here. There are others that are great examples. I still remember and I know Greg was at that wine meeting, maybe it was the person who was introducing it, but I still will never forget that bottle of Cap Shandy that we tasted years ago. Yeah. Yeah, that was like a $200 bottle, but God, it just blows people's minds away. Would you say Cab is the classic, most basic of the red wines? Whoa. Well, we'll say this. Basic in the new terminology the kids like to throw around. Let's say fundamental. Look at it from the cab wine drinkers point of view. There's cab and then there's everything else. It's not such a bad distinction. I like to think there's cab and pinot. You're either a cab drinker or a pinot drinker, meaning you either love rich full-bodied reds or something, just a baby medium bodied, a little bit lighter, maybe a little bit more aromatic. It's a really nice division and I really think it really captures all the red wine drinkers. So I'm not going to say just what you had to say. That's how I would look at it. Maybe you guys will look at it as well. I imagine there are some things like that in whiskey, but with wine, a lot of people started cab. It's bourbon. Bourbon, excuse me. A lot of people started cab. They might go and make a venture, try something else. A lot of people returned to cab, so you got to give it credit. Well, let's try some. Yeah. What inspired me with at least this kind of podcast was, especially the cab drinkers, for them, there are perhaps two different places where they'll go. There's good reason. You go to Napa or you go to Bordeaux. Both are great places to get cab. Both have really good reasons why they make some of the best cabs in the world. I wanted to explore places where they make just as good cab, but again, they're off the beaten path. They're not from Napa, they're not from Bordeaux, but they offer great opportunities for you to taste. Jim, can you do the big voice guy effect? Cabernet Around the World. There is truth to that. Out of the seven continents, six continents have cab, world-class cab for that matter. Well, I wanted to start off with, go to California. I want to cover why Napa is a great place. We all know the reasons. We'll just cover it very quickly. Mediterranean climate, it's very rare. I think we covered this in Grenache. So long story short, with the Mediterranean climates, tons of sunlight, rain at the right moment, meaning winter. So cabs grow, just great cab grows out in Napa. No doubt about it. Let's take that as a touchstone. A place I want to look at is Palserobles. You can also mention Sonoma. Patentized old stomping ground. Wait, what is that? Firestone Walker? Yeah. You can mention Sonoma, but people do know a lot about Sonoma, Louis Martini, all that stuff. But Palserobles in recent years has been emerging. Not just simply offering stuff, but wine critics are really taking note. We had the, in fact, one that we're tasting now, the Daou, we've had the winemaker and the owners visit us. And very impressionable, very, very favorable. This is a super popular wine, right? Oh yeah, very much so. And it's actually really well priced. What's cool about Daou is that they really cover a lot of price points. I thought it was mostly expensive. I didn't know that. Oh, you'll see. This one, well, you know what? I'm not going to say this is inexpensive or cheap. Crack it open. Yeah, but it's about approximately $20. It's definitely worth it. Oh, that's fair. Yeah. So for a nice bottle of cab. Yeah, absolutely. Why don't you pass your glasses over? Why don't you just pass the bottle? You're not trusted with the bottle. Notice the dark robe. Dark robe? The dark robe. Sounds a little ominous. What's going on here? Sounds a little something. So again, Daou, it's like a story of many, like even Napa producers, they earn their wealth elsewhere. I think it was in computer programming. But they decided to, again, pursue their passion, look for wine. What's really telling is that they were considering the conventional path while they're looking at Napa or Bordeaux. In fact, they did look hard there, but they really couldn't find anything too affordable to purchase. Fortunately, they had come across Paso Robles, did their research, discovered that there were some earlier California producers who really did see the potential there. And in fact, what's cool about Paso Robles, Firestone family, right? Oh yeah, they had Aberle. Back in the early 80s made a really good cab. In fact, Ronald Reagan took a case of Aberle cab to China with them. That's how impressed he was with it. So there's some history to it, but again, it's really critical. Take note, you go go Reaganots. This wine is awesome. Isn't it? This wine is so good. It's so classic on the nose. This rich blackberry and raspberry fruit. And then there's this gamey spice quality on top of it. It's so iconic. Like that's Cabernet. Yeah. I mean, the fruit's there front and center. But it's not like overly jammy or anything. No, not at all, which is surprising. I mean, it's I could taste some of the furry tannins. You know, there's that even though the fruit is dark. I like to say whenever I'm writing a tasting note, I like to say it's either vibrant or bright. It's kind of weird when you get like a really good cab that's done right. It's still dark fruit, but there's that freshness to it. You know, like sometimes dark fruit could be like baked or something. Yeah. You know, this still has that freshness. Yeah. Actually, yeah, it has more of a green aloe quality than like a black tea. Yeah. And when you say aloe quality, I think you're saying this right. It has like that refreshing green quality where it's like almost like a minty refresh, freshness, things like that. Yeah. But you could taste those talents too, a little bit finer. And I know we argue about the word acidity. I'll use it today. There's that refreshing acid, like when you're drinking a great glass of orange juice in the morning, just sort of like boom, that zing, that freshness. That's something that's very distinctive about password rubles in particular. Granted, there are great wines coming out of Napa and they do have that freshness. It's usually mountain fruit or there's that great story about all the fog beings coming in across the bay and into Napa Valley, yada, yada, yada, yada, yada. You're yada. I mean, that's true though. It is true, but we always hear that story all the time. Diurnal shifts in password rubles tends to be more warm, more consistently, so you end up with a riper more fruit forward. Can a test was there, and fat and pale was very hot and uncomfortable there. You hit the mark. It's definitely those diurnal shifts. It's the temperature change that allows us to retain the freshness. For those of our listeners that aren't familiar, can we get a definition? Cold nights and warm afternoons mean that the temperature inside the berries cools off at night, and the acidity ripens at a more even rate compared to the sugars and the other stuff. Exactly. Or we could say in San francisco, it's the only place where you're wearing your parka in the morning and your t-shirt in the afternoon. That's a diurnal shift. That's right, because people think Napa, they don't realize if they haven't been there, that it's only a few miles outside of San francisco to the north. In the same bay, it's affected by the same bay weather. Also, if this bottle was from Napa, it would cost at least $45. If not more, absolutely. And you know what? You'd still be happy with it, paying 40 bucks. You're doubly happy drinking this. Yeah, it's really good. Don't tell me how happy I am drinking this. But I think I also want to mention one more thing about what's really distinctive about Pocerobles. There are very few places in California that has limestone. But they have limestone in Pocerobles. So that's definitely one thing that really maintains the acidity and the freshness. So I wouldn't be surprised. And like, you know, it's already emerging now. They're already, you know, they're called bottles that's selling for 150 bucks a bottle. But the Pocerobles cabs, you know, it really should be on your radar. All right, let's globetrot. Let's hop in the concorde and supersonically jet to somewhere else around the world. This time we're flying off to Italy. They make cab in Italy. This is how they make cab in Italy. Ha ha ha ha ha. This one here, we all are familiar with Tuscany. Obviously, they make Sangiovese, Chianti, all that stuff. We all know we hate Chianti. They make some of my favorite cab in the world in Italy. Really? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Sassicaia and Ornolaya. Those are cabs? Yes, they are. I didn't know that. Indeed. Well, except for Masetto, which is 100% real. No, sh**. Yeah. Can we taste one? What do we have back here? This one's from Antinori too. The Antinori's are actually related to the founders of Sassicaia. Just to cover Sassicaia, it was a pet project of Mario and Cisa. He really had a big fan of cabs. He decided to make cabs in Italy, despite everybody's advice that it probably won't succeed. Let me do this part. Looking at Bordeaux and California, and the success of those regions, you might not be surprised to find out that Bvlgari, the home of Cabernet in Italy, is on the West Coast. Yes. Oh, no kidding. Yeah. Tons of gravel there, but you know what? It does have advantages as well, certainly beyond Bordeaux. I feel like Looking Beyond Bordeaux would be like a wine series video you'd see on VHS. Looking Beyond Bordeaux. Yes, with that synth music that doesn't track right. It's like out of phase. Narrated by Rick Steves. Hi, folks. This one smells especially loamy. It smells graceful and classy at a level that we haven't had so far. All right, then. Loamy, eh? Loamy, perfumey, like a ladies perfume, a delicate ladies perfume. What's cool about Bulgaria is not only does it have the gravel as Bordeaux, it has that Mediterranean climate that we spoke of, but also those westerly winds that really make it not only a warm place at one point, but also there's those winds that really cool it off. So you're getting those good diurnal temperature shifts, retaining the freshness, even so much so that I think Greg really hit on the head. There is that aromatic wine that makes the Bulgari wines very distinctive. Sasakaya is known for having just a touch of Petite Verdot, just a touch of Cabernet Franc, that lends it that aromatic quality, that really makes Sasakaya and wines like that really shine. Yeah, we should point out that we're drinking the poor man's Sasakaya here, which is actually Antinori's Bulgari product, El Bruciato. Exactly. El Bruciato 2016, right? What does this cost a bottle? About $22.99. Can you believe that? Yeah. This is nice. It's noticeably more floral. It's closer to French style than California style. It's starting to get even more silky in the glass now. Yeah. On the palate, the fruit's there, but it's way more refined and dialed back. It's like a bed for all of the other flavors that are floating across the top of it. Oh yeah. Yeah. This is really nice. Yeah. Yeah, but again, what I love about, it's weird. You don't normally think of Cab as like big terroir driven, but it really is. I hope people really do keep Paso Robles in their minds as well. That being said, everybody knows bulgurries, so I'm just happy that we're tasting it now. It's a great example. Well, not everybody knows bulgurries. Not everybody. Yeah, sure. I'm the one who did. Why are you guys looking at me? This is good. I still prefer Paso. Oh, really? No, all fair. The Daou has probably been my favorite so far. They're all different though. This is more of a wine nerd's wine. Yeah. This is really cool though. This is a great wine. We're hopping back on our Jefferson airplane, and we're making our way around the globe. I thought this wine tasted horrible. The modes of transportation can escalate, right? Primus wine. My name is Mud. That's like Claypool Vineyard's Primus wine? No. Oh. Well, he makes wine. No relation. He does. No relation though. So again, the amazing thing, Cabernet. Made by a different race car driver. Cabernet, six continents. We probably should turn to South America. One might rightfully say that Chile saved the wine world. Wait, really? Oh, because of Phylloxera? Exactly. Oh. Exactly. I thought that we saved the wine world with Phylloxera. With our indigenous North American root socks? Yeah, because I was pretty sure it was North American root socks, not South American. That's pretty North American centric of you. IKA. The America. This one smells like ****. Wow. Like sand? Yeah, it is sandy and dirty. All right. So is this from Argentina or Chile? Chile. Chile? Chile. It was a leathery. It smells like a baseball glove. It's a leather diaper. Really? Yeah, there's a little bit of fecal matter in here. You're probably smelling sulfur. I mean, the fruits there, but I think the fruit is definitely taking a back seat to like other earthy notes. What is this? It is the Primus Cab from Chile. What's this cost? It's about the mid $15 about, round about. Where in Chile? The Maipo Valley. We are picking up on that well water. Oh, stop it. Mr. well water over there. When it comes to water, Chile is like, they have water coming down from the Andes. No, I just meant this is like, sulfur. Like, Pat's well water. Oh, Lord. Pre-treatment. My water is irony, not sulfur. To be true, I think there's definitely a lot of savor in this one. I like how it tastes. So pretty much all of Chile is West Coast. Pretty much. I think that's one of the great things about Chile. You know, if people are looking for like something that's inexpensive but want something, you know, that could be really fruit-driven, Chile is a great place to go to. Long story short, you know what? Take a look at Napa Valley. It's right along the coast. So too with Chile as well. It has the same Mediterranean. It has a Mediterranean climate just like Napa Valley, but sees more water. And what's really cool and distinctive about Chile is that because it's surrounded by mountains, it hadn't seen phylloxera like most wine world had seen previously. So a lot of the vines are really grown on their own root stock. Still to this day? Quite a bit, yeah. Wow. Quite a bit. Phylloxera is a tiny bug. It's a mite. It eats the roots out of Venice Vinifera, and basically destroyed the wine industry in all of Europe. Pretty much. But we overcame it. By grafting onto different root stock. I think it was an American root stock that we used? It was North American root stock. It has, because phylloxera is native to North America, grapes that were growing in North America were naturally resistant against it. So America didn't save the wine industry, America demolished the wine industry. Yeah, because phylloxera made its way back to Europe. So most root stock across the globe now has North American root stocks grafted onto it as a preventative measure, right? The plant that is physically growing is two species. It has a North American grape root, and then literally grafting the Venice Vinifera European vines into that plant, literally cutting them until they grow together. Yes. It's crazy. It is. If you have a blot in France that's grown on its own root stock, it's like a big deal. Oh, yeah. It's like a very big deal. Big deal on the wallet too. Yeah. It's like you take a look at, there's champagnes there, maybe. Ayala, it's about 200, 300 bucks a bottle. I mean, you take a look at Noval Nationale coming out of Portugal. That's an 800 dollar bottle of port. There's this one bottle of Bordeaux being made on its own root stocks. I think it's selling for like 10,000 bucks a bottle. So this Primus Cabernet is 15 bucks. Yeah. Again, that being said, the fruit is there, but it's also that savor. I think we all agree on that. There's that savory quality that cab could display. This is definitely what, let's say, call them more of a Eurocentric style of cab. So if you're looking for like, if Bordeaux is what floats your boat, this is definitely something to look to. But we're talking again, $15 for this one. You know, great wine, great wine. There are certain producers who not only produce a wine that's made from, again, grafted vines, but some producers also have small rows of un-grafted vines, allowing you to compare and taste the two. I could think of one in Brunello, one in Barolo, a few champagne producers. You could tell the difference. If you had the good fortune of tasting the two side by side. But what they speculate is that there is, let's say, travel from obviously the plant to the roots. You could store more carbs, so to speak, allowing the vine to survive. The wines from wines on their own rootstocks, they might not be as alcoholic, but they'll still have incredible freshness of flavor as compared to, say, a wine that's grown, a wine that's sourced from a vine with American rootstock. Take that for what it is. But wine critics have tasted, again, wines from own rootstock versus grafted rootstock, make a taste of the difference. There are very few places that, again, that offer this. Again, distinct about Chile, inexpensive wines, comparatively speaking, that really offer wines like this. So, great place to watch. What's that song by Styx? Come sail away, come sail away. We're going to hop into our starship and head toward... Well, we'll take the Pacific. Go to the Pacific, go west from Chile, we'll go over to Australia. Southern Hemisphere, represent. Going to the McLaren Vale. That's not a wine. This one with the screw cap. The Aussies are definitely ahead of the game when it comes to screw caps. They've done their testing, and they've concluded that screw cap really does offer benefits. So much so that even some of their top wineries. Ease of access. Ease of access, that's a big thing, yes. Well, and the fact that these things can arguably age forever. Yes. Without imparting flaws or over-oxidization. You know what? The Bordeaux Lay have a solution for aging, crumbling corks, and that's literally you take your bottles back and they pop the corks out and replace them with new ones. Which is so stupid because you're not solving a problem. You just kick in the can. After how long? Whenever you need to. To serve as they belong. That would be like a long time though, right? Before they start crumbling. You know, not that long. I mean, if you're storing them properly, they should last a while, but I mean, it's an organic product that's sitting out exposed to air on one side. How much? I feel like once you take the cork out, though, there's like a massive rush of air goes in. They'll top it off to with the wine of the same vintage. Then when they recork it, do they like put a blanket of CO2 on it or something? I don't know. Do they put inert gas in there or anything like that? I think Penfolds does. Penfolds does? Also, the Australians do this stupid European duct tape fix too. It's a good thing. Or you can just have a screw cap and have your wine preserve fresh. So we're tasting the wine. And not have to hear that grating squeaking sound by the podcast. This definitely smells better than the Chilean one. What's the ABV on this one? This one seems like it's got a little alcohol on the nose. 14.5. The reason I guess that is tax purposes. That's like square in the middle of the range. They just put that on there. Yeah, the Mossies. This is from McLaren Vale, Long Story Short, Manitourian Climate. What are you guys tasting on this one? It's tighter. It's tighter. It's less aromatically complex, more ripe fruit, and the saturation's dialed up a bit. So there's less room to breathe. It's a big, bulky, heavy berry quality. I get like dark cherry, coco nib. The cherry for sure. Also, yeah, almost like a minty eucalyptus quality to it. It's almost like really refreshing to it. So is McLaren Vale's up river from Barossa? Am I thinking that correctly? They're at least from southern Australia. It's just south of Adelaide. Because it's so close to Adelaide, it has a history just because again, it's really close to a city. It's not too far. When they first developed McLaren Vale, it wasn't too far from what was then a major metropolitan area. They grew grapes there. What's cool about Australia is when they were starting again to the wine industry, they valued it for its medical value. Wine was therefore, it was to provide a certain medical, it was almost like a pharmaceutical kind of thing. Really? Yeah. It's pretty crazy. You take it like some of the great wineries, doctors were founding them. None really spring to mind, to be honest. But doctors were creating these wineries because they saw medical value in drinking wine. Now, are these legitimate doctors or is this like a Kentucky Colonel at this point? Legitimate doctors, unbelievably so. Again, I picked this one because I'm really fond of the producer as well. Chester Osborne, he's one of those crazy types in the wine world that you meet. He's really passionate. His wine making really does capture a lot of what Australia brings to the table. Basket press, long story short, it's just a soft way of pressing the juice so you're not tasting too many tannins. Small batch production, despite the fact that, again, they make quite a bit of this wine. He really wants just the fruit to come out, fruit forward wines, what he wants to make. Just solid stuff. Is this coastal? Where is this? It's just off the bay. Again, it's like southern Australia. It's not too far from the Barossa Valley. You are seeing some coastal influence there, but it is primarily Mediterranean climate. I wasn't sure if they were caught in the Scuba crowd there. At what point do we change the name Mediterranean climate and accept that every other place in the world also has Mediterranean climates? No, it's just the word Mediterranean. Yeah. Well, coastal climate. It's just a place that wine thrives, and then they make wine in Texas, but we don't drink a lot of it here because it doesn't. They make wine in Arizona, but we don't get a lot of it here because nobody wants it except for fans of Tulle. Yeah. I mean, the big thing with Mediterranean climate is that it rains at a really opportune time. You don't want to see the rain in the harvest because that just screws everything up. What would be great if you could see rain during the winter time where it replenishes water in the ground obviously. That's what a Mediterranean climate is almost defined by. That's when it rains. Otherwise, it's warm and sunny throughout the whole time. If you could find a place with a Mediterranean climate to grow over idle, it's like, I'm not going to say your job is set or it's all that easy, but it's a lot easier than other places like Bordeaux, not a Mediterranean climate. So they're struggling with everything else. They got to make sure that they harvest before the rain. They have to pray that there's sun during summertime. Whereas a Mediterranean climate, boom, there it is. Bordeaux is a lot like Chicago. It's a dredged swamp. Yeah. Absolutely. You're absolutely right. When it comes like a dredged swamp, he's literally correct. It's the Dutch dredged swamp. I'm not going to say it's a created terroir, but it is a created terroir. Before we move on. This is Darnenburg High Trellis, Cabernet Sauvignon. Yeah. If you're looking for a cab from Australia, look at the Margaret River as well. Colin is one big producer of Vas A Felix. Both are on our shelves, particularly on our website. They're on there as well. Another great area where a cab from Australia, world-class. We need to try Asia and Africa still for a cab around the world. Yes. Two more. So where are we? We are in Australia. Okay. Let's go west again. Boom. This time across the Indian Ocean. Did you see the Earth sandwich? This guy in Australia connected with a guy in Spain, and they both set a piece of bread down. It's a picture of something. Where are we going? South Africa. South Africa, Meerlust. So to answer Patrick's question. It's very appropriate since their accents are often mistaken for one another, South African and Australian. South African and New Zealanders. Well, same difference. Yeah, it's stupid, isn't it? I didn't know where Jason has to pee. I haven't had a South African wine in years, and I haven't had one that didn't smell like sh** even longer than that. This smells fine. It smells better than chili. That Chilean Cab is my new standard for does it smell like sh** or not. This is ripe and big and opulent and kind of chocolatey. Cool. It's still a little savor too. Kind of gamey. A little bit, yeah. But it doesn't have like that. I like this one. Yeah. The finish is real. This is Meerlust Cabernet Sauvignon. Oh, pops. Good balance of sweetness and acidity. That same savor too. Wow. How much is this? It's under 30 bucks. Nice. Yeah. That's great. That's bread or cherry. I wonder if there's something else in there to give it like a little bit of lift. It's a Bordeaux blend. You're absolutely right. Oh, look at that. 61% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, 12% Cabernet Franc, and 4% Petite Verdot. So let's say 16% aromatic varietals. Yeah. So again, Mediterranean climate, there is that common theme of where to grow cab. That being said, many of the wines here again, come from Mediterranean climates, but just emphasize the point, the Mediterranean climate is a very rare phenomenon on the earth. We're talking, I think it's less than 4% of the earth's surface is a Mediterranean climate. So yeah, that's where you can grow cab, grow it very well. Meerlust rubicon, not Cabernet Sauvignon, like I said earlier, so cut me some slack. Okay. Let's see. Hold on, we got to ruminate on this just a little bit more, because that is the most bright and fresh one of these from South Africa that I've ever tasted. Yeah. I don't want to rip on South Africa, but I have to admit, I think you're speaking to a point. There was a time where it's like, a lot of South African wines I tasted, I think the word that usually springs to mind is like band-aid or rubber. Yeah. At the time, they were all coming in at like seven or eight bucks, maybe 15, maybe 20. Since then, the category has shelled out. Oh yeah. Maybe it's that the only ones that are left standing are the really fresh, good examples. Well, that being said, I think you're right, but I think there's also a lot of, I think you're absolutely right. The best ones will survive. But there is that younger generation of producers who are making some great wines, not just simply cab. One of my favorite sorras is from South Africa, Molino. A young producer, in fact, the wife of the winemaker, or she the winemaker herself. There's one winemaker who's actually from Oak Park, Illinois that makes wine in South Africa, Molino. A sorra, you're absolutely right. But there are some great South African producers now, young, hungry, making great stuff. It's nice seeing, Meerlust is one of the older producers now from Stolenbosch, one of those grand dames, great wine. But there's also that young energy that's coming out of South Africa too, that's making wines where you don't taste that banded, you're not tasting that rubber. What would you get those flavors from? What's that a result of? Stuck fermentation. Really? Yeah, stuck fermentations. Or that, or that bread note, and there's an infection. I thought it was Britannomyces sulfur and the effects of sitting in the wrong shipping containers for too long. That could be it. That's among those things too. Stuck fermentations usually happens, and bread usually happens, because the grapes are so ripe that those yeast can't really ferment in time. It's like, stops. It used to blow Jason's mind that beer fans would actually want Britannomyces in their beer. Yeah, I'm still trying to wrap my mind around that, honestly enough. But no, hey, that's a limited number of people. It's all good. It's a niche. Most of them are fans of Roger on the podcast. All right, we're hopping on our international rickshaw. All right, you guys ready for something really weird? I don't know. So, okay, outside of China, where would you guys guess wine comes from in Asia? Sri Lanka. Well, I had to, man. Okay. It's kind of unfair because you're going to pull out a Middle Eastern wine and be like, well, it's Asia by like 10 miles. Exactly. I have to. You're absolutely right. I had to confirm. East of the Caucasus or your old Earth doesn't count, buddy. I had to, you're absolutely right. It is kind of unfair. I had to actually look it up just to make sure it was in Asia. Lebanon. The mighty Musar is our final wine. It sees Cab, it sees two other varietals, Sinso and Carignan. Sounds like a bare knuckle boxer from 1800s. That's actually an apt description of it. Because as you, we all know, Lebanon, lots of civil strife, civil war. You have to be a bare knuckle boxer of a winery in order to survive that. This is definitely what it is. I mean, who would in their right mind grow Cabernet Sauvignon in Lebanon in a war zone? Where there was ordinance one time in the vineyards, there were missiles flying above it. It just boggles the mind that this wine still exists. But, it does and it's again it's captured the heart of many people. This is actually distributed by a guy named Michael Broadbent. That's Michael Broadbent, master of wine. Brig Bordeaux, wine critic, again master of wine, really well known for. He had trained numerous wine tasters through the decades. He found this Chateau Musar back in might be the 70s or 80s. He was at a wine fair of sorts and he was really captured by this wine out of Lebanon. Again, there weren't that many wines to taste at that time. Bordeaux was what was considered the benchmark, but this was one of his wines of that wine fair. In fact, Tecanter magazine, one of their Tecanter winemaker of the year, their first award, the first time it was given, was given to the guy who pretty much propelled Musar into the wine world, Serge Hochar. So yes, the Becca Valley is where it's the olivey, the Mediterranean climate, but it's also grown at altitude, so there's that certain coolness there as well. So again, that same situation, lots of sunlight, but a lot of cooling influence to give it to maintain that freshness. Yeah, you get to smell that maturity there. Bright Bing cherries, a little bit of cassia bark, a little bit of that, like, autumnal. Interesting finish, kind of herbal on the finish. I don't know what to call that. Almost like a brickish note. Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting. This doesn't taste like any of the others we've had today, for sure. No, no. His nose is intense. I like it. It's totally different though. Getting like a hobby shop, like glue and latex paint. That's interesting that you mentioned that. If there's one thing that Chateau Musar is famous for, this is a wine geek word, the volatility. There is a certain acidity, acidic quality to it that really comes out. Now, it can manifest itself in one or two ways. That gluey note that you're talking about, or what it's valued for, it could lift all these other flavors. So what you have to do is you have to keep on coming back to it over let's say five, ten minutes, and those other flavors should emerge. That volatility hope lifts all those flavors. I remember the first time I tasted this, that bottle was open for an hour at the time, and just all these flavors start coming out, all these big fruit notes, leather notes, the olive notes, cherry citrus peel. You know what, in a blind tasting, I might not guess that is cab. I think it's something a little more esoteric. I don't think you'd be the only one. I mean, I think that's one of the cool things about Chateau Musar. It could taste like a lot of things. You could taste the cab, you could taste those Mediterranean qualities like when you had first mentioned the olive notes initially, boom, it's there. The Carignan, the Cinzo really brings it out. But the cab structure is there as well. I like that. It's an interesting wine. Interesting as in? I don't know. I just I don't think I've tasted a wine quite like that before. Like that savory, the olive, the fleshy olive note, not really the briny thing. It's not what I expected from a cab. So much cab, my experience is a little more limited, and it's all, you know, raspberry, you know, blueberry, you know, big woodstaves. Yeah. Yeah. This takes everything in a more kind of drier finessed direction, but it doesn't go too far the opposite way. Right. I mean, I think that's a lot of things that we forget. I think that I think the distinctive character, the distinctive notes of cab are not just simply the fruit notes, but it's those savory notes as well. You know, those tea notes, the tobacco notes, things like that, you know, love it or hate it. You know, I don't judge that. But I think cab is one of those fever idols. I could have really expressed those notes. If you really like those tobacco notes, if you really like cab of that nature, you know, this is definitely one to look for. You know, it's one of those wines too that if you're in a brown bag and kind of mood and really want to like just... Let's say throw people. You want to get drunk on your way home on the metro? I'll just say you want to throw people off. If you want to throw people off and just say like throw people for a loop, this is one of those wines. Definitely. All right. Cool wine. All right. We have Trot of the Globe with these non-Napa, non-bordeaux cabpics. I would love to hear what your favorites are. Yeah, that Daou from Passo. And I really liked the Italian one too. I really liked it. Oh, awesome. Awesome. Again, Daou's $22 a bottle and that. How about you? Passo's still the first one. Yeah, I love that one. Yeah. Daou. Daou? Daou for you too, Greg? Yeah, the Daou and the Bvlgari. Yeah, those are just. It's tough to not like that. And what's really cool is, again, both those bottles, mid-20s. So you could find Grey Cab. You don't have to spend a lot, but those two, they're spot on. They are spot on cabs. You're not spending Napa Valley prices. So is it the virility of the vine? Is it the popularity of the wine that it makes? What is it that got this grape all around the entire world? No, you captured all those things. You know, cab can be grown almost, provided that it's warm enough, cab can be grown there. And even if it's not warm enough, it will still taste more than a passing family resemblance to what you love so much about cab. And I could pull down a $10 cab off the shelf, you got to taste those black fruit notes. Something for Chateau Saint-Michel, boom. You know, it's like black fruit chocolate. Not a problem. We're also tasting it from where it grows well, and it's not growing in Greenland, and it's not growing in Illinois. I wonder. Maybe it is growing in Illinois. I bet you it is. Probably somewhere. Yeah, somewhere. Oh, for sure some jerks planted cab in Illinois. Both of them probably have some cabs in Illinois. Probably. All right. Well, I think it's people, it's easy to say. It's easy to say Cabernet? Yeah. Well, everyone says cab. Cab. Yeah. That's just great marketing. Like taxi cab. There was a big yellow cab. All these other hard to pronounce, pretentious sounding names. It's ironic since the full term is very pretentious. But Cabernet Sauvignon? Yeah. It's beautiful to say. How is that pretentious? It's just a couple of words. I'm saying like the American ideal of like, a lot of people are intimidated by mispronouncing French words. So I think people like that they can just go, I'll take a cab and they don't have to be worried about mispronouncing something. I want a cab, truck nuts cab. Anything that's difficult in any way is labeled pretentious. Wait a minute. So that's why I'm saying pretentious. I don't think it is. Five minutes ago, we were going to talk about Brett in a beer and Brettanomyces. I mean, that's hard to pronounce as well too. Nobody says Brettanomyces, they say Brett. So the same thing. Yeah. Okay. We don't say Chevrolet, we say, I drive a Chevy. With truck nuts. I drive a Chevy. How did Chevrolet become Chevy? I mean, that's perfect American bastardization of a beautiful French word. All right. Thanks, Raj. Yep. That's your old man ran for the day. All right. Well, thanks for bringing the lineup of Cabernet. I'm glad you guys really liked all of this. Cabs. Thanks for the cabs. Thanks for bringing the cabs. Thanks for bringing the cabs. I do enjoy them. Put it in a tag. More to it than Napa labels. Yeah. You got that right. Say it again. More to them than Napa labels. Try to make it not sound rehearsed. More to them than Napa labels. You've been drugged. More to it than Napa labels. Well, there's more to it than France. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. All right. Thanks for listening to another episode of Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. We'll be back in your feed next week. I'm Greg. I'm Roger. I'm Pat. Jason. Keep tasting. Keep tasting. Say it but project because you got to be able to. Keep tasting. Music. One more time. Keep tasting. What? Come on. Keep tasting the cab. Why is this? Get close to it. Say it. Keep tasting. But not over me. You don't have to say it. Keep tasting. But loud. Keep tasting. But now you just sound aggravating. Once more but with healing. You should read like all five takes. Keep tasting the job. Keep tasting the cab. Keep tasting.