14 Hands, and One Broken One

In honor of a weekend split with the Sioux Falls Skyforce, I tasted two wines last night and will be discussing them in two consecutive blogs. I wouldn't dare bore my (two) readers by breaking down two wines in the same column!

The first game I needed to pair a wine with was Friday night's loss. As anyone who follows the Mad Ants knows, losses are not a unique occurence with this franchise and so I needed to find something more specific on which to base my wine selection. Fortunately (or unfortunately if you are an Ants fan), our best scorer and emotional leader, Ron Howard, gave me inspiration by BREAKING HIS HAND in the closing minutes of our previous loss against Erie and will be out for 4-5 weeks. Ouch. Without Ron's 22.4 points and +18 efficiency rating we tumbled, losing 115-97 and giving up 36 points to Reggie Williams.

In honor of Ron's injury, and because I was in the mood for a Washington wine, I grabbed a bottle of 2007 14 Hands Cabernet Sauvignon for $11.99. Tasting this wine last night, I got to enjoy the company of my sister, Kelsey, who is in town from Seattle on business for the week. Kelsey and I worked together in the wine industry and she has incredibly sensitive taste buds, so if you think my tasting notes are particularly on point then you can give credit directly to her (or you can still give the credit to me and I will do my best to share it with her).

Regardless of the apportioning of credit, we thoroughly enjoyed breaking down (like Ron Howard's broken hand. Get it? No, seriously, get it?) this wine. The nose was powerful and very pleasant, with huge dark fruits like blackcurrant, fig and brandied cherries melding nicely with chocolate, sweet tobacco and a woodsy scent. The pallet, however, left much to be desired. It was very dark, with chocolate and smoke, but the fruit that was so heavy on the nose fell away like a Jeremy Richardson jump shot. The tannins were too pronounced, and Kelsey remarked that it "felt like swallowing sand." The only fruit left was on the finish, and that fruit was a combination of raisin and sour cherries.

A quick note about tannins. It is normal to have strong tannins in a young red wine. In fact, tannins will mellow with age, so these are normally indicative of a wine that will age well. However, as tannins become less aggressive with a wine's age, the fruitiness of a wine also diminishes. Therefore most wines that will age well carry a lot of fruit flavor when they are young; with this 14 Hands already lacking strong fruit, this wine will not age well. Being that the wine is not particularly good now, and is not likely to get better, I do not recommend the 14 Hands Cabernet.

Similarly, I would not recommend losing your top scorer for 4-5 weeks. Being an eternal optimist, I remarked to Coach Meyer that maybe there is a silver lining here and that our players could enjoy spreading the ball around more, resulting in more assists and a better flow to the offense. His look of scorn, combined with the resigned head shake, told me that I had better stick to selling tickets and sponsorships...