HOUSLEY'S CENTURY OAK RESERVE CABERNET SAUVIGNON - 2001

Housley's Century Oak Winery gets its name from the famed valley oak tree that heads the 40 acre main site. The winery strives to make top quality wine for reasonable prices hence its motto: "Not all expensive wines are great, not all great wines are expensive."

The Reserve Cabernet is made from Lodi grapes, aged in new American Oak barrels and sports an alcohol content of 13.5%. This wine has also been highly touted by the Wine Report as one of the top 50 wines of the year.

TASTING NOTES:

Purple-red in color with nice hints of vanilla cask on the nose. On the palate, oak, tea leaves, dried herbs, tobacco and cherry flavors dominate before giving way to a tart black currant finish. There is nice complexity here and bright acidity, but the mouthfeel is a bit thin for Cabernet.

SCORE & RECOMMENDATION:

88 PTS
Good complexity and pleasant aromas. I like this wine but it does need some time to breathe to settle down the tart finish. There's a lot of acidity and enough alcohol here to suggest that this wine will improve quite a bit with some cellaring. At $19 a bottle, this is a very good value for California Cabernet.