A Cashmere That’s Smoother than Silk

Hi everyone! One of the things that is most exciting to us about wine is that we’re always coming across something new and exciting. Sometimes it’s a grape we’ve never heard of, or a winery we’ve never heard of. Or, as in this case, it’s revisiting a producer that we that we know and like, but for a totally different type of wine.

We had become familiar with Cline Cellars through their Zinfandel, which has always been a winner for us, particularly their Ancient Vines Zin. Cline is located in the Carneros region of the Sonoma Valley, which is a cooler region frequently planted to Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. However, Fred Cline has taken a different approach with his Zinfandels, and also as we’re now finding out, his Rhône varietals.

As we were preparing for the weekend, we needed to make a quick run to the store for some white wine (having run low on refrigerator whites), but what caught our eye was a wine enticingly called Cashmere. In reading the label, we noted that the Cashmere was a blend of Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvédre (“GSM”), a classic Rhône blend. Since we were familiar with and have liked Cline wines in the past, we decided to pick it up. We were also interested in trying a GSM because it’s been awhile since we’ve had one. We were not disappointed.

The Cashmere opened to warm berry notes on the nose with a hint of spice. Upon tasting, this was a smooth and silky (like cashmere?) wine that had flavors of chocolate, dark raspberries, and plum. The peppery-spicy notes helped balance out the fruit and round out the wine. This was not an “in your face” wine, but was full-bodied and warming. There were very few tannins in this wine, which is partially the result of the winemaking process. The grapes used in Cashmere undergo full destemming prior to a very gentle crush, which means there is very little tannin released from the grape pip (seed). Most of the time when a wine is very tannic, some of the stems are crushed with the grapes, and unless you do a very gentle crush, you’re likely to extract some tannins from the pip. The intensity and full bodied quality of the wine is due to the older, lower-yielding Grenache vines, and the presence of whole berries in the fermentation (because of the gentle crush). Having whole grape clusters in the fermentation results in more intense berry flavors than you would ordinarily get., and also a softer wine profile due to the fact that there are no crushed grapeseeds to give the wine tannin and astringency.

We recommend this wine to any red wine lover, but particularly those of you out there who aren’t as keen on the heavier tannic reds like Cabernet. This wine retails for around $17.99 and it is definitely a buy again for us. Cline Cellars is a sponsor of the Breast Cancer Network of Strength’s Ride to Empower, and on this particular label you will see the pink ribbon symbolizing support for breast cancer research. We hope to visit Cline when we’re in Sonoma next weekend, and were excited to find that they’re conveniently located between two of our favorites, Gloria Ferrer and Viansa. We’ll let you know what other great wines we try from Cline!