Cosentino Winery is based in Yountville California and has been producing quality wines since it started in 1990. Since that time, it has established itself amongst many wine drinkers in California as a staple brand and has clearly created a nice, loyal following for itself.

2007 Novelist – W.E.P. Rating: 75%

Technical Data:
Fruit: 77% Sauvignon Blanc and 23% Semillon
Price: $22

Nose: Chalk dust, hay dust, green apples, star fruit, match flint.

Taste: A decent, dry white that has notes of the chalk coming through and is layered with notes of green apple skin, green apple core with a definite flintiness coming through. The back-end gets very awkward for me as it perks up the heat way too high for a white – yeah 14.4% is rather high and sort of smothers the fruit.

2005 Cabernet Sauvignon – W.E.P. Rating: 70%

Technical Data:
Fruit: 78% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc, 8% Merlot, 2% Petite Verdot, 2% Malbec
Price: $45

Nose: Black pepper, bell peppers, black cherries, blackberries, black plum skin, tobacco, a hint of shoe-polish and asphalt tar-bubble.

Taste: That classic “Napa-style” cab comes belting right out of the gate, but brings with it a high-heat scenario that leaves me a bit baffled. There’s a lot of wonderful, classic cab flavors being squashed here by the alcohol. Flavors like Cherry-cola, black tar, shoe leather, cherries and peppercorn.

2005 The Poet – W.E.P. Rating: 50%

Technical Data:
Fruit: 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 24% Cabernet Franc, 14% Merlot, 7% Petit Verdot
Price: $75

Nose: Some good cedar notes right off the bat, along with blackberry jam, wet socks, big-league chew, cherios dust, and black cherry soda.

Taste: Good mouthfeel and tannin structure which are encompassed with good notes of black currant, blackberry, cherries, road tar, tobacco and dark chocolate. A solid texture all the way through the mid-palate transition but does pick up just a touch of heat on the back-end. Good acids – which I’m a huge fan of – mean that you could pair this wine with everything from red-sauced pasta dishes to a thick-cut rib-eye steak with peppercorns. That said, there are quite a few wines I’ve had that are equally as good for about half the price or less.