2005 Avalon Cabernet: A Twisted Saga

CC licensed image from Flickr user djking

I’m a fan of the Bin 604 monthly bargain case where you pick up 12 wines for $99. The retail value of the wines is usually around $130, so you’re getting a little break on the price. The wines inside fall on the quality spectrum as you would expect:

• one winner bottle
• ten bottles that are decent drinkers and good to have on hand when all your friends come over and raid your wine cabinet
• and one bottle that stinks

The July case offering included one bottle of 2005 Avalon Cabernet Sauvignon. This was the bad bottle. The one that misbehaved. The one that snuck in and ruined the party.

The wine was bad enough that it didn’t merit a tasting note in my VinCellar, just a damning score from me of 71. The only other note on the wine scores it as a 50 and includes:

Let me save you time…aromas of cheap cologne, on par with Mad Dog 20/20

Sounded like a slam dunk. Out of a sample of two people, 100% of Avalon drinkers found the wine to be bad. Case closed.

Not so fast, though, because the wine critic to end all wine critics disagreed. Robert Parker, in his recent “value wine” issue, praised the wine, saying

It has been at least twenty years since I have had a Napa Cabernet this good for under $15 a bottle.

This is sky-high praise for a man who tastes thousands of wines per year. Parker scored the wine at 87, a fine score that may fall into the wheelhouse of the 89 project. Another wine from Avalon, their Avalon Cabernet Sauvignon, was given an 85. To recap: the “2005 Avalon Cabernet Sauvignon” was given an 85, while the “2005 Avalon Cabernet Sauvignon Napa” was given an 87. 85 or 87, two point difference are splitting hairs even on a seemingly logarithmic scale like Parker’s.

A thread popped up on erobertparker.com over Parker’s tasting note, and opinions came down divided, a slim majority falling on the side the wine is plonk and should be poured down your nearest sink drain. Words like “decent QPR” and “One of the worst wines…in the past year” peppered the thread. No consensus was found. Usually the scales tip one way or the other: the wine is good with some naysayers or vice-versa. Some agree-to-disagree is reached over the wine’s style. But in this case the spectrum of opinion, the scoring band if you will, was as wide as I’ve seen in a long time.

What could be going wrong here? It is possible there is some bottle variation going on, where one great bottle sits on the shelf next to another that is bad? Given that the wine is produced in great quantity (~50,000 cases), there may be some barrel variation or even shipping truck container variation involved. Are there in fact two different wines from Avalon, one that is a magnificent value and one that should be banned for the common good?

Stepping out of my front door into the Baltimore heat this morning, I unrolled the newest issue of Sobo Voice that had been left on my doorstep. I flipped over to the wine column and there is was, the 2005 Avalon Cabernet recommended by Thomas Ward, Retail Manager at The Wine Market. It’s in stock at $18.99, so you can go find out for yourself.