Notes of a BottleMonkey

Root:1 Cabernet Sauvignon Wine Review

During my last trip to the wine store I spotted a very interesting bottle. Sellers only want to stock wine that they can move, so competition for shelf space can be tough. As a result, marketers for vineyards will pull out all the stops to get a coveted spot on the shelf. If you don't have an established brand name then you will need to devise some other method for getting the attention of the consumer so they will buy your product.

The wine that caught my eye was named Root:1. Interesting name eh? The winery had placed a little brown bow around the neck of the bottle. The bottle was very clean with no real label, but rather the details were screen printed onto the bottle. Also on the bottle was a very clean graphic of a grapevine with an exaggerated root structure.

Okay, so they had my attention.

The description on the bottle indicated that it was wine produced by vines with the original European root stock. What exactly does this mean? This is a great question and I am glad you were thinking it.

The quick answer is a small insect called Phylloxera devastated the vineyards in Europe during the 1800s. This little insect attacked the grape plants via the roots. It was discovered that American root stock was resistant to this little pest. The practice of grafting Europe vines to American root stock became the common practice in Europe to replace the empty vineyards. The Root:1 bottle indicates that some of the original “pure” European vines were brought to Chile before the devastation occurred. The isolated environment of Chile allowed the vines to stay pure all these years.

Does the root stock effect the grapes that much? It only makes sense that it would as the root composition was the difference between vines that died and vines that survived the Phylloxera. I think the real question should be: “Does the root stock affect how the wine tastes?”

Unfortunately, I can't answer this question. The 2006 Root:1 Cabernet Sauvignon wasn't that great in my opinion. It had the smell of petroleum distillates on the nose. Every time I took a drink my first thought was that I really need to clean my garage. Who knew that drinking wine could be so depressing?

This is a good example for one of my laws to live by: "Good drink doesn't need a fancy bottle to sell it."