Joel Gott Cabernet Sauvignon, 2004 — The Wine Vault, SSF. $16

Joel Gott is one of the Three Thieves and I had high hopes for his wine– supposed to be a step above the Three Thieves’ wines. You-Me had his Zin, and really liked it.

My reaction? Thin nose. No legs. Thin flavor. Minimal fruit, no tannins, Notes of watery blackberry and the tiniest hint of pepper. Drinkable and OK, but I felt like:

• I knew I shouldn’t have spent more than ten bucks on wine.
• I was a French schoolboy, drinking watered wine with lunch

I’m really dissapointed in this wine. I only made it to South City ’cause my IBM guys sponsored a wine tasting (read: they bought out the wine shop and I got to drink a bunch of really expensive wine– which was super tasty and drinkable and a nice excuse to sneak off from work earlyish on a Thursday). The wine shop guy highly suggested this wine as a steal at sixteen bucks.

I’m thinking I should maybe bring him my card and my blog and tell him to read up if he’s looking for wine values. There’s loads of stuff that’s way better.

Not that I’m not going to drink it– it’s a perfectly acceptable fourth bottle of wine to open late at night or to maybe drink with a burger. I’ve had better table wine under a Euro in Spain. Unfortunate. It’ll probably age OK, and might develop a little but, but I’d look for something else.

Maybe his Zin.