TN: 2017 Michael-David Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Freakshow

  • 2017 Michael-David Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Freakshow - USA, California, Central Valley, Lodi (5/8/2021)
    Day 1: Got this in my Santa sack and let me tell you I must have really been bad in 2020! Easter egg dye, water, some spice and diluted red currants. To say this has a short finish would be an understatement. This wine is totally made for the consumer that slams their wine and looks for fun labels. 65 points (65 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

Some wine educators say drink what you like but this wine certainly is an exception to the rule. This would be like playing golf and you hit every drive left into the woods. Yes you need a lesson!
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LOL. The taster who wrote the most recent note before yours on CT gave it a 91! Maybe it’s you!

I’ve been to the tasting room in Lodi.

It’s “educational”, the peeps running the tasting room will teach you about wine! LOL

I’ve had a couple of their bottlings (also gifts) and they are all pretty hot/coarse IMO.

They sort of seem like how Languedoc wines might have been 25 years ago or something.

Definitely some potential up in the Sierra Foothills, and its a beautiful area to explore.

Our local Costco seems to once a quarter have some kind special thing with local wineries, and we see a special section for them, beyond this one which usually is in stock.

LOL. The taster who wrote the most recent note before yours on CT gave it a 91! Maybe it’s you!

Maybe bottle variation. [rofl.gif]

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It’s “educational”, the peeps running the tasting room will teach you about wine!

  1. Step one hold your nose and don’t smell the wine
  2. Step two slam it so you taste nothing
  3. Step three repeat.

They are very sincere about their wines. I just smiled and thanked them.

It was a residual sugar fest.

They are very sincere about their wines. I just smiled and thanked them.

It was a residual sugar fest.

It took me five minutes to find the vintage on the wine. It is the smallest font ever and I had to pull out the bifocals.

Guess you’ve never tasted 7 Deadly Zins. [wink.gif]

Don’t forget the petite!

Day 2: Sweeter. Now we are talking. Spice and sweet fruits. Cardboard after taste. Big improvement as it is now! 68 points

Never give up on a wine!
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It doesn’t make sense to train the customers of this kind of wine to get vintage sensitive. Producers want prospects to see the distinctive label, buy the wine, and never mind vintage, RS etc.

I have really nice neighbors who love all these Sierra / Lodi types of wines, which have a kind of BBQ / clear plastic cup / drink around an installed grill kind of charm to them. Their backyard is unbelievably perfectly landscaped, and makes me feel embarrassed about mine.

I have really nice neighbors who love all these Sierra / Lodi types of wines, which have a kind of BBQ / clear plastic cup / drink around an installed grill kind of charm to them. Their backyard is unbelievably perfectly landscaped, and makes me feel embarrassed about mine.

Spend less on wine and you too can have a great backyard!!!

I bet it’ll be better in a week.

Pancake syrup. :pancakes:

And yet tons of folks prefer these wines. We really are a very small % of the total wine drinking community here on WB - and my guess that there are many on this board, probably lurkers, who like these wines. Just an FYI . . .

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And yet tons of folks prefer these wines. We really are a very small % of the total wine drinking community here on WB - and my guess that there are many on this board, probably lurkers, who like these wines. Just an FYI . . .

Larry I was at an industry tasting 10 years ago where the freakshow got a lot of action while Walter Hansel, Ridge, and other tables had no one drinking them. Most people who own wine shops don’t drink good wine or stock good wine. I can count on one hand good wine shops in Minnepolis/St. Paul right now.

Snobs, well-informed and gift-inflicted snobs, but still snobs.

Day 4: Wow is this sweet now! Candied fruits in the house. Acidity almost non existent. Had to drink a cup of coffee to kill the taste. 67 points
To think you could buy Substance Cabernet for around the same price.

Larry made an excellent point earlier.

We all started our wine journey somewhere: Mateus? Blue Nun? Woodbridge? Bolla? Yellow Tail? Wine-in-a-box? This what most consumers buy.


Additionally, here are couple of random facts about Phillips Farms (aka, Michael David):

. The company owns some of the most historic vineyard sites in the Lodi AVA, including the “Bechtold Vineyard” and the “DeLuca Vineyard”. Without this producer, who knows how many old vineyards may have been ripped out and replanted to higher yield, mechanically-harvested fruit sources for über-conglomerate brands? The expense of keeping heritage vineyards in the ground often is floated by sales of commodity wines like “Freakshow”.

· Many beloved winemakers get their start working for large-scale producers, or maintain such jobs to fund their passion projects. Not very long ago, several fellow Berserkers were excited about the most recent release of tiny-production bottlings from a winemaker whose “day job” is at Michael David Wines.