I love me an Alexander Valley Cab. They vary, of course, but in general, AV Cabernets are swollen with flavor, loosely structured and bursting at the seams. Like Alexander Valley itself, AV Cabs represent what Sonoma County is at its essence: vivacious, slightly hedonistic cowboy country where the senses matter more than pretenses and no one gives a hoot if you spill your wine on your blue jeans.
Murphy-Goode is one such winery, founded 25 years ago by a couple of old pals, and the Murphy-Goode Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 is one such wine. As dense and dark in the middle as raspberry chocolate pudding, the nose is dominated by ripe cranberry, black cherry, smoked jam and dried bay leaves. The palate adds some mocha into the mix of black fruit and earth and suddenly you are out of your living room and into the backwoods of Sonoma County, sitting in the bed of a flatbed Chevy, legs dangling by the campfire, twigs popping and flames spitting. A berry compote is simmering in a camp pot over the fire, its sweet smell mixing with burning bay leaves and cowboy coffee as it fills the air. Your sunburned cheeks glow pinker with wine as you cup your glass in your palms to keep it from getting too chilled now that the sundress day has given way to a fleece and scarf night. Someone strums a guitar and someone tosses a stone into the Russian River rolling gently by and you inhale deeply the casual bliss of the Alexander Valley Cabernet. Now that is Murphy-Good.
Cheers.
Allison was raised on the vine in Sonoma, California, and believes that life is too short to drink bad wine, count calories, or second-guess your destiny. She now lives in Los Angeles where she practices many things, the two most important being contentment and tricks for opening a wine bottle without a wine key.