Cult Cabs: Sloan Asterisk 2003

California Cult Wines: I liken them to the housing market:

When they all rolled out, everyone bought in who was lucky enough to know about them and we all made a killing with these $200-$300 bottles of wine that we could turn around and sell a few months later for $500 - $750. Harlan, Screaming Eagle, Bryant, Colgin, etc.

And then we got bored of those. So, the new round of wines attempting to be California Cult Part 2 came out of the gate, charging $400 a bottle on their first release based on the relationship or employess they had in common with the orignal Cults. Levy & McClellan, Sloan, Maybach Materium, Scarecrow, Dana Estate, Schrader, etc. Unfortunately, the deciding factor if you reach cult status in wine is whether you are awarded 100 points (or thereabouts) consistently in good vintages. A couple of the aforementioned have managed to accomplish this feat.

But what about the old cults? Harlan is hanging in there on the secondary market, but sometimes at a loss. Screaming Eagle seems to be holding steady, although the winery has driven the prices up to what used to be a hefty profit for the consumers. If you buy Bond, you're pretty much throwing money away; the same with Sloan and Levy & McClellan. You can buy them cheaper on the secondary market than if you're on the mailing list.

So - I figured I'd start drinking some of these new Cult Cabs since they weren't the investment I thought they'd be. Like the housing market, sometimes it's better just to get out. The upside is that hopefully I get to tackle some really profound juice in the process.

Sloan 'Asterisk' 2003: Such was not the case with the Sloan 'Asterisk'. Sloan's "second label" which has never been reviewed except by wine drinkers on, say, Cellar Tracker. I bought this on the mailing list for about $136 by the time it was taxed and shipped. Very herbal aromas: sage, pine, anise, cola, cedar. On the palate, the wine is highly overoaked, showing loads of baking spices and sweet vanillin. If blind-tasted, I might have called it a small amount of American oak, which elicits a sweet coconut and dill component. The fruit is present, but masked by the oak - more black/red fruit than blue/black, which is appealing to me in Cali Cab - I only wish I could have experienced more of it.

It was certainly not my particular cup of tea. I found a lot more enjoyment in the Bond Matriarch 2001 from a short while ago, and at a little less expense. But, it was okay with the dry-aged Kansas City and loaded baked potatoes. A steak is about the only meal I can really enjoy with domestic Cab, because of the meat's simplicity - less for the wine to fight with. Still, I opened a half bottle of 2005 Vieux Donjon Chateauneuf-du-Pape anyway. I liked it much better with the food. It seemed tight in the glass, but the fatty steak really brought the fruit out.

The tragedy is that while I am wildly underwhelmed by this wine, especially at the cost, I still have two more bottles that I know are not worth what I paid for them and that I'm not going to be excited to drink.

Be careful in those wines you choose to invest in. You had better want to drink them if it turns out the market bites you in the bottom.