Cabernet Sauvignon

The wine

Firm tannin is the argument. Alcohol-removed reds usually cover the missing weight with sweetness. This Cabernet does not. The palate is dry, and the grip is firm enough that the glass feels like a decision about red wine, not a fruit drink in a Cabernet bottle.

Dark cherry, plum, and blackberry lead the nose, and they lead it with some force. The aroma is the expressive part. The grape is readable before the body has to prove anything.

What the middle cannot match is a conventional Cabernet’s weight. Balance, here, is tannin asked to stand in for that weight. Dry, tannic, and lighter through the center. The tannin does the structural work the body will not. Firm grip, less density. That is the balance, and it is also the limit. Structure arrives. The heavier frame a full-strength Cabernet would put in the same glass does not.

The finish stays structured, and it lingers. Tannin holds after the fruit steps back. No sweet rush comes in to round it off. The dryness and the tannin are the achievement. The lighter body is the cost. Take the pour for the first, and keep the second in view.