Villa Chiara Italian Cabernet Sauvignon 6-Pack
$59.99 $̶1̶0̶7̶.̶0̶0̶ 44% off List Price
2011 Villa Chiara Delle Venezie Italian Cabernet Sauvignon
CT link above
A $10 Italian Cab?
Ok, I’m listening, tell me more…
jimjacks66, you know something here?
Rjquillin, I know nothing but a $10 Italian Cab with lower alcohol % is very intriguing to me. Thus my first sucker designation. If any in Seattle wish to share given the limited current ship-to state
“issue”, give me a PM.
Does anyone know how long this wine will stay drinkable?
I was at home yesterday, working in my office as usual, when the doorbell rang upstairs. I opened the door to see a screaming monkey in a red cape, jumping up and down and turning the occasional somersault. When the monkey saw me he stopped for a moment, and thrust out to me a package he was carrying. After I had the package in hand, he started screaming again, scratched himself in the manner monkeys are wont, and scampered off. Frannie Dobson and Cathy Gilbrander apparently had been chatting by the mailboxes on the side of the street when the monkey appeared at my door, and they were now staring at the monkey and me with expressions on their faces that you seldom have the chance to see on someone’s face and that you hope you never show to someone else, at least not to someone you care about.
I watched the monkey’s course as he took off across lawns and yards (that the monkey was a “he” was unmistakable due to the somersaults), thoroughly incited the Doberman inside the invisible fence in Frannie’s yard, disappearing at last into the green belt down the road behind Cathy’s house where I could hear his screaming getting fainter and fainter.
I was a bit taken aback by everything, and when I opened the package I muttered to myself, “Well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle!” For there, before me, was a bottle of Villa Chiara 2011 Cabernet Sauvignon. “What a delight,” I thought. “We’ll enjoy this with the steak we’re going to be grilling tomorrow night.”
Unfortunately, the monkey apparently gave me something else as well, for I spent the afternoon today knocked down by a passing GI bug. Fortunately I’m back on my feet and while I’m not completely over it I’m feeling well enough to do some tasting in moderation. So I’m sipping and making notes as I complete some of the work that I didn’t get done this afternoon. I’ll probably have some notes to post in a couple of hours.
WUNNERFUL!!
With my circumstances I set this up to do some tasting over several hours, in small amounts at each tasting point. The label on the bottle says to uncork one hour before serving and consume with roasts.
[list][*]8 pm
Opened and poured half the bottle into a decanter as well as small pour for a pop and taste. The remainder in the bottle was restoppered.
Color is dark garnet. Dense, but not opaque. No legs. Little sparkle or brilliance on the edges. No nose to speak of; traces of dark fruit and darker spice – currant maybe, with some clove and nutmeg. Synthetic cork closure, for those who care about such things.
Much more open on the palate. Some added notes of cherry and a bit of acidity. A very small amount of tannin arrives mid-palate. Even in the few minutes in the glass the wine is becoming brighter, though the nose isn’t evolving much. Brighter fruits are now front and center. Moderate roundness in the mouth. Flavors easily sustain over three or four minutes on the roof and palate; with some bite at the back of the mouth persisting for awhile. Initial thought is that this is stands a good chance of emerging.
[*]9 pm
From the stoppered bottle: Showing more legs. Nose is stronger and more evolved. The darker notes are more prominent; there’s just a bit of a deep note that I can’t place but is seductive to my nose. On the palate, flavor is still dominated by brighter fruits, but those notes aren’t quite as sharp as previously, replaced by a bit more roundedness and mouthfeel. A nice touch of acidity, with a more tannin making an appearance.
From the decanter. Similar nose. Profile brighter, with a very prominent strawberry note. Good rounded mouthpresence, but not silky or velvety. . Tannins continuing to emerge. Acidity and heat in balance. Would be nice to have the pH and TA.
[*]10 pm
From the bottle. Nose continuing to get evolve. In the mouth very definitely continuing to open up. Maybe of cinnamon note as well. Very sippable on its own. Definitely brighter than typical cabs,
From the decanter. The decanter is now decidedly darker than the bottle and seems to me to be falling apart. The bright notes have disappeared, and what remains is pretty mediocre; since this juice never had the deep notes of many cabs, after dissipation of the bright notes gone there really isn’t very much left.
Makes me think that it’s possible to give this too much air. As a test I ran a bit of the decanted wine through a Vinturi to see what would happen with even more air. Still very flat compared to the pour from the bottle. Let the rest of the V’d pour sit for three or four minutes, and it is definitely shot.
[*]11 pm
No change from the 10 pm notes.
[*]Summary
Fruit forward, very easy to drink on it’s own and a “drink now” offering. I don’t pick up anything that tempts me to think about socking this away. Would also an easy choice to bring to a party that isn’t a serious wine drinking affair.
Needs some air to open up, but it appears to be easy to kill it with too much air. I recommend following the bottle recommendations to open an hour before serving, but don’t decant unless you can’t give it the recommended hour of breathing time. If you do decant, don’t try to stretch out the bottle.
Definitely more bright fruit than most cabs, to the point where I could see this being challenged by a very deep and strongly flavored slab of beef. But roast game, flank steak, even pizza – IMHO this would be a nice choice.
I don’t think I’ve ever had a labeled Italian CS before. But if I were involved with a blind tasting of cabs and someone told me that one of them was Italian, I think there’s an excellent chance that this is the one I would pick.
No obvious defects, and well done for the style it is. I don’t think it’s anything to sock away, but I don’t think that was intended to be that. I don’t think it’s going to fall apart immediately – there seems to be enough acidity and underlying structure to hold up for the short run, But I can’t see it holding up for any more than a year, if that. As a rough rule of thumb, I expect that wines that would handle storage should show better now with added air; some elements of what would emerge with age are brought out by aeration. But it was the reverse with this wine; too much air pretty much killed it.
I’m on a pretty severe SIWBM, but at $10/bottle, I will go in for at least one and enjoy it over the next six to nine months. [/list]
update 4 pm Saturday. Now two hours after opening. Wine kept overnight in stoppered bottle and unstoppered decanter.
[list][*]from the decanter.
Nose unchanged. On the palate is is somewhat brighter than it was last night. Still a touch of tannin and some bite. Overall it’s still well-balanced and drinkable, though not at all deep and complex. Actually, I’m surprised at how well it held up overnight.
[*]from the bottle
More nose from the bottle than the decanter. The bottle still is brighter than the decanter, though it’s clearly fading from where it was last night. Still balanced and enjoyable.[/list]
Jim - I’d split except that I’m going for a full order.
Whoa. This stuff can’t be shipped to Minnesota. I thought anything could be shipped to Minnesota. Is there something unique about this offering, or did our nutty governor do something to restrict online wine sales?
Just when I wanted buy some …Add MI to the list of no shipping. When will this get fixed??
has MI been on other international offerings, these typically are much more limited than normal offerings, if those even exist for the moment.
Sometimes I almost envy you folks living in other states. It seems Everything ships to Illinois always leaving me with a tough decision. Given those tasting notes I am leaning towards going in for one. Anyone else had this wine and could push me off the fence?
Bah! No Michigan again this time!! I’ve seen us off the list on other offerings recently, but I haven’t checked every time… is it for all wines to MI now?!?
I can see that MI has been excluded all week. My guess is that they are caught up in the abundance of caution policy that Woot is employing with regard to the new interpretation of existing law.
Thanks for the review. It is much appreciated.
Again, no shipping to Missouri. Someone nudge me when I can actually buy something from woot.
Hey guys- I know it’s disappointing to not be able to have wine shipped to some locations, but we’re doing what we can with the current restrictions that are in place. Things are constantly changing, so keep checking back! Again, I’m sorry. 
Is this akin to buying a pizza at a Chinese restaurant?
Do you have any idea if this even includes the situation in VA at this time as well?