Fresh Off the Truck: 2018 Color & Sound Spring Mountain Cabernet [$160 for $35?]

2018 Color & Sound Cabernet Sauvignon Spring Mountain District Napa Valley

14.9% Alcohol

$29-$35/btl

Medium bodied visually and aromatically muted, with a tinge of off-putting notes signaling what's to come.

Dour and woodsy on the palate with an unappealing after taste.

Too much fruit to be considered corked, too many flaws to be considered good.

Tasted from two bottles with consistent notes.

79/100 WWP: Mediocre

For reference here's Wine Spectator scale that I try to adhere to when assigning numerical ratings to my reviews:

• 95-100 Classic: a great wine
• 90-94 Outstanding: a wine of superior character and style
• 85-89 Very good: a wine with special qualities
• 80-84 Good: a solid, well-made wine
• 75-79 Mediocre: a drinkable wine that may have minor flaws
• 50-74 Not recommended

Bottom Line

A stunning swing and a miss among otherwise reliably oustanding Wine Access NDA wines.

This wine would easily be outperformed by a $10 bottle of Columbia Crest.

One might say this is the result of "bottle shock" and I should wait a few weeks before trying any wine after transit. I can see the merit in that assertion generally but I highly doubt this wine's shortcomings are the result of recent transport.

My advice in the past is to return wines that are obviously flawed but I can't confidently state that both of these bottles were corked. Wine Access customer service is well regarded so this could be a good chance to see how that goes.

It's a real bummer when you order 6+ bottles of a wine and the first two bottles are stinkers. I'll update this post if future bottles show more redeeming qualities.