One of our go to wines is Cabernet Sauvignon. Even though I’m always on the lookout for different interesting wines, I always keep a few bottles of the big red wine on hand. Over the years I’ve tasted some really great Cabernets and some not so great ones. The differences between the wines we’ve tasted have been fun to discover.

One of our favorites is Silver Palm, a California Cabernet from the North Coast. It sells for <$20 and the vintage we recently had was 2010. It was very smooth, not harsh at all. It had a full finish almost a soft feeling in the mouth. It was dry with a cherry taste, very easy to drink.

Another Cabernet that I bought on the advice of a friend was Carnivore, 2011, a California wine, also under $20. It was also very soft and smooth. It was very dark almost purple in the glass, similar to the color of Zinfandel. I could taste blackberry fruit with the first swallow.

Neither of these two wines had the big bold heavy Cabernet Sauvignon signature tastes that I’ve had in the past. Both of these were soft in the mouth and very drinkable, easy to finish the whole in one setting. The Silver Pam had an alcohol content of 13.9% and I couldn’t find an alcohol content on the Carnivore, but then I could focus that well after drinking almost a whole bottle either.

These are wines that I will drink again and again. One an old favorite and one a new find.