Levendi Winery 2005 Symphonia Cabernet Sauvignon

Jun 20th, 2008 by admin

- The Wine Spies - Online Discount Wine Deals Everyday Delivered To Your Home - Wine Directory, Wine Scores, Wine Reviews, Wine Ratings, Wine Club, Wine Events, Award Winning Wines White Wine, Red Wine, Cabernet, Chardonnay, Pinot, Noir, Grigio, Merlot, Sauvignon, Blanc, Napa Wine, Sonoma Wine, California Wine

If you are visiting us for the first time, Welcome! The Wine Spies feature one exceptional wine each day – and we only bring you wines that we ourselves seek out and love. Always, the wines are great. Sometimes even better than that, as is the case with today’s wine from Levendi Estates.

OPERATIVE WINE REQUEST ALERT: Today’s wine comes to you thanks to our Operatives, who demanded that we return to Levendi for their Symphonia Cab!

FREE SHIPPING ALERT: Enjoy Free Ground Shipping on six or more bottles, with promotional code CABSPY

Mission Codename: The Wine Gods have smiled upon us

Operative: Agent Red

Objective: Our Operatives loved the previous Levendi Cabernet Sauvignon that we featured here. Send Agent Red to Napa Valley to investigate claims that Levendi Estates has crafted an ‘04 Cab that beats wines at twice the price. If verified, procure a suitable quantity for our Operatives to enjoy

Mission Status: Accomplished!

Current Winery: Levendi Estates

Wine Subject: 2005 Symphonia Cabernet Sauvignon – Napa Valley

Winemakers: Alison Doran

Backgrounder: The Wine Spies have had the great fortune to bring you some of the finest wines available anywhere. Of particular note are the handful of stellar 2004 California Cabernet Sauvignons featured here in recent months. If 2004 was a great year for Cali Cabs, then 2004 was an especially great year for those born in California’s Napa Valley. Today we send Agent Red, this agency’s red wine expert, to Levendi Estates, where he discovers today’s remarkable Cab. Read his tasting notes and mission report below for a complete profile of today’s wine.

Wine Spies Tasting Profile:

Look – Hearty concentration of color that goes garnet to burgundy at the wines heart. The wine maintains great concentration of color right out to the edge of the glass. On swirling, the wine maintains its depth, but reveals a deep and juicy clarity with no murk. The wines bouncy surface and skinny legs contribute to the wines distinctive good looks

Smell – Bright and deeply aromatic on opening, with aromas of sweet cherry, mild spice, unique roasted tangerine peel, rose petals and red Swedish fish candy. After a little time in the air, the wine brightens as fresh fruits emerge, compelling you to inhale deeply, again and again. Eventually, the aromas become so enticing that you are reminded to actually taste the wine!

Feel – Round and full, the wine initially hovers across the front palate before it becomes full-on mouth-coating with structured medium tannins

Taste – Big and delicious, with balanced fruit and smoky cherry, blueberry, vanilla, sweet oak and dark plum with a hint of dusted dark chocolate

Finish – Begins dusky, then finishes sweet and fruity, with delicious sweetness, tartness and flavors that tail off slowly with a slight dryness

Conclusion – After we first feature Levendi here, our Operatives flooded us with requests for today’s Levendi wine. They loved the previous wine, but were very eager to taste today’s 2005 Symphonia Cabernet Sauvignon. Having just spent a few hours with the wine, I now know why! This wine is beautiful and bright, with a depth and sincerity that makes it a delicios on-its-own wine that is the sort that is fun to discuss as you enjoy it. I paired mine with a spicy penne pasta with arugola – which is a challenging pairing for any wine to stand up to. The spice and the tartness might tend to overpower other wines, but this Cab, with its bright acidity and solid flavors not only hold up, it compliments. If you tried our previous Levendi Cab, this is a sure-win. If you love most Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, you must try this fantastic win from our friends at Levendi.

Pairing Update – Later in the evening I called my asset at the winery to ask her if she had any desert pairing recommendations for the Symphonia. She recommended dark chocolate or chocolate cheesecake. I thanked her and instantly called Agent Sparkle, who was due to return from a mission. Sparkle returned to the safehouse with a fresh chocolate cheesecake. The pairing was remarkable. Perfect and delicious!

Mission Report:

For your enjoyment, what follows is a retelling of our original mission report:

“Awake, Mortal!”, the voice thundered.

I shot up from my slumber – and promptly banged my head… on the ceiling? I looked around. Outside a window the countryside streaked past.

I remembered that I was on a train, traveling from Montenegro where I had taken some R & R time – to Greece, where I would be doing some deep background research on the origins of wine.

Looking at my watch I realized that I still had a few hours before I reached my destination. As I lay my head back down on my pillow, a voice bellowed, “You dare to sleep in my presence, Mortal?!”

My eye snapped open and, to my horror, I found that I was no longer on the train. Instead, I seemed to be in a huge atrium that was surrounded by pillars. In the center, a large figure sat atop what appeared to be a throne.

A deep laugh thundered from the man and then, “Fetch me a fresh amphora and come here, Mortal, my thirst is strong this day! Ariadne is in her chambers pining for Naxos, and Ikarios is busy tending the vines and arguing with shepherds again, leaving me unattended!”

From my research into ancient Greece and Greek mythology, this thundering figure could only be Dionysos, the Greek God of wine and fertility. How did I get here? Was I dreaming?

Playing along, I grabbed up a amphora of wine. He smiled warmly at me and took the amphora in one mighty hand. He lowered his nose into the mouth of the amphora and inhaled deeply. Smiling, he said, “Mortal, I have taught you well! You even put poor Ikarios to shame with your toil. Your wine making skills are nearly perfected. Perhaps I will grant you immortality after all.”

With this, he raised the amphora to me and shouted the word, “LEVENDI!”

Back in my train cabin, I blink the sleep away as the word echos in my mind. Levendi, Levendi. The word is familiar somehow… I quickly pullout my spy communicator and speak the word into its tiny microphone. An instant later, after completing its satellite connection to our W.I.N.E. (Wine Internet Nexux Engine) databases at Central Command, I am presented with these results:

1) A traditional Greek toast, “Levendi” acknowledges a hard day’s labor and achievement

2) A fine winery in California’s Napa Valley

Of course! Increasingly I had been receiving intel on Levendi Winery from my informants. Then and there, I decided to cut my trip short – and rush to taste Levendi’s wines!

See my tasting notes above…