Gary Vaynerchuk's raves about the 03 Boudreaux Cabernet Sauvignon (to which he gave the highest rating he'd given any wine in 300+ episodes, if that means anything to you) caused me to go hunt down a bottle. Unable to find the 03, I settled for an 04 which I then took with me to Los Angeles last weekend to share with a friend whose love of Zydeco has earned him this playful Cajun nickname.
Day one: tight and unresponsive. Day two: no change. Day three: complex flavors of black cherries, chocolate and spice with lavish structural oak but no vanilla, velvet mouthfeel, concentrated, intense, not sweet. Searching for information just now I read one description of it as a "fruit bomb", but that couldn't be further from what I thought: this wine is Bordeauxish in its restraint, and it shines with food. Only 675 cases made. Really, quite excellent, and great value for $40ish. Parker gave it 91 pts.
A little about the winery: the owner/winemaker is one Rob Newsom who lives with his wife just outside of Leavenworth, Washington, and his winery, like his remote home, is completely off the grid. He's a Louisiana native, hence the joke with the name. This particular wine is a blend of cabernets from three of Washington's better vineyards including Champoux, plus 4% merlot and 5% cab franc, and spends two years in a combination of French, Hungarian and Minnesota oak.
Then last night we opened a bottle of a wine that's getting a lot of buzz locally, the 2004 Smasne Cabernet Sauvignon. It's a nice, big fresh mouthful of minimally oaked cabernet, juicy and forward. Instantly likeable but at $44, ridiculously overpriced for a pop-and-pour. There are many Washington red wines as good or better in the $20-30 range.