Wine Tasting: Rolling Mist Cabernet Sauvignon

This tasting is of Rolling Mist Cabernet Sauvignon. This wine is from California, and has no vintage listed.  Cheap Wine Finder suggests that there is no vintage as a "cost cutter" for wine. This would make sense because this wine was priced at $7.99 at Aldi in Christiansburg, VA.  

Cheap Wine Finder describes this wine as "plum red" with "ripe and fruity aromas of blackberry jam, brown sugar, black pepper" and also "vanilla."  This review also considers the wine "medium bodied" and tastes like "ripe blackberry" and "black pepper."  

Based on page 25 of Wine Folly, I say the cabernet sauvignon appears a ruby red and has a weak aroma. When I first opened the bottle, I smelled a large amount of oaky, woody aroma. As the wine breathed, the aroma grew fainter and smelled more of ripe blackberry.  

When tasting this red, there is an initial strong, fruity sweetness.  The red leaves a slight dry feel to the mouth, and is medium-bodied. For this tasting, I tasted the wine alone first. I then paired the wine with parmesan cheese and a medium-rare steak. Page 61 of Wine Folly recommends to pair a medium to full bodied wine with red meat, so I felt this medium bodied cabernet sauvignon would be a good pair. Also, per page 55, the cheese and steak pair well with the fruity red because it is a contrast pairing of salty and sweet.  However, page 56 recommends to pair equal intensity wine and foods, but I feel the parmesan cheese is more intense than this wine with its tangy hit of flavor.  I took the harmonious matches of fat, salt and acid from this page into account when creating this pairing.

To try the food and wine pairings, I tasted the food first then the wine and vice versa.  The pairing of Rolling Mist's cabernet sauvignon with steak brings out the blackberry taste and creates a richer, fuller-bodied feel in the mouth.  The strong taste of blackberry and oak brings out the saltiness and meatiness of the steak.  The tang of the parmesan cheese was brought out by the lingering bitterness in the wine, and this was such a great contrast of fruit, woodiness and tanginess that it felt like a full charcuterie board experience.  I will definitely be having this wine and parmesan pairing again. I think for the price of the Rolling Mist cabernet sauvignon, this wine has a developed flavor and depth that will make it a go-to red for me on a at-home steak night!