Shannon Ranch wines are crafted and grown with a commitment of sustainability. Over 1,000 head of Corriedale Sheep manage our vineyards and land, reducing the need for tractor passes and naturally fertilizing the soils. First introduced to the United States over 100 years ago, these sheep provide robust coats of wool to keep us warm as well as keeping our grapevines healthy. It is with their help that we craft robust, complex, and velvety wines suitable for any occasion.
Lush dark cherries, fresh plums, coffee, and almonds on the nose; with a mouth full of red cherry and plum fruits, sweet tobacco and milk chocolate notes on the lingering, full bodied finish. ~Joy Merrilees, Director of Winemaking and Production
2019 was a wet spring followed by a mild summer. It was ideal for long hang time and getting phenolic ripeness. Early season frost singed low areas but cooled off all northern locations and allowed for extended hang time of our Cabernet and Petite Sirah.
Acids remained naturally higher this vintage and brix were slow to accumulate until they spiked at the end of the season. Power shutoffs made pressing and pumping grapes difficult. In the end we got all the fruit in and made some beautiful wines for the mild season.
At Shannon Ridge, we live in harmony with Mother Nature. The vineyards feed the sheep, the sheep feed the vines; lamb feeds the people, people drink the wine and wear wool.
We are dedicated to creating a family of wines that consumers love at top-quality and affordable prices. We are passionate about preserving our land, not only for great vineyard sites, but for the wild creatures which share our property. Our sustainability practices integrate a flock of sheep that clean the vineyards, remove the excess canopy, and reduce the need for chemicals, while providing natural fertilizer.
“We grow incredible mountain fruit at a great value for our customers. You can’t find this level of quality at an everyday drinking price.”
Available States
AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, IL, IN, IA, KS, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NM, NY, NC, ND, OK, OR, PA, RI, TX, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI
A bottle of Shannon Ranch 2019 California Cabernet Sauvignon arrived at our house on Tuesday.
What a joy it is to be a wine rat! Casemates, I’m here whenever you need me!
On Wednesday, myself and 3 others each had a small/medium sized glass with dinner. We decanted the Shannon Ranch for 2-3 hours before drinking. I drank the final two glasses with dinner Thursday and Friday. To spice things up (and to make this ridiculously unfair), we opened up the 2019 Shannon Ranch alongside a $50-60 2014 Napa Cabernet from one of our favorite small lot producers.
To cut to the chase, we all agreed that the Shannon Ranch bats way beyond its cost profile. I didn’t know the exact cost, but from googling it, it looked like it retails at $16 (!) so it might be as low as the ~$10 bottle range on Casemates. We all agreed that we’d consider it a great value at the $16 retail price and an incredible steal at the casemates price. For anyone looking for a weekday (or weekend), low cost, solid QPR cabernet, this is a no-brainer of a purchase.
It is a dry wine, with moderate tannins. It has a relatively low alcohol content (13.8%) for a California Cab, but the flavor is robust, with a pretty in-your-face jammy/fruit-forward profile. The Wednesday group noted black cherry, blackberry, and oak.
The wine held up very well on night 2 and was still going strong on night 3. And how did it hold up against one of our favorite 2014 Napa Cabs? Like expected, it’s a very hard comparison point, but the Shannon Ranch held up much better than what seemed plausible. But what was interesting was the robust flavor profile of Shannon Ranch practically drowned out the 2014 Napa Cab.
Earlier in 2021, I was a rat for The Mongrel Rouge magnum. While these are very different wines (the Mongrel Rouge was a pinot-based blend) and I liked the Mongrel Rouge, I’d pick the Shannon Ranch over it without question, even at equivalent price points.
Is Shannon Ranch ultra-complex? No, I wouldn’t say that. But it’s a very pleasant drinker that I believe many folks will enjoy, and a crowd-pleaser to share with friends.
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: Tax & Shipping not included in savings calculations)
2019 Shannon Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon - $45 = 27.26%
Happy to have the chance to offer some rat service here. Kudos to Casemates for providing ample advance notice, bottle arrived packaged in thick Styrofoam insulation- warm outside, bottle was not. Recap- amateur pallet, untrained in proper use of descriptors.
That said…BLUF this wine was great. I’m buyin’.
Quick pop and pour- On the nose I didn’t find it very assertive, noticed current, a soft cherry leaning and something…not must…not offensive…mineralish- I’d categorize it as a light background flavor of wet cement or better yet slate. On swirl- beautiful deep color (reminds me of a custom Porsche color, Vampire red…), appealing cabernet with (wild) blueberry undertones.
My photography aspirations didn’t quite live up to the task with the cell phone there…bummer blurry reflection in the glass…but point is that there was a nice, resilient coating of the glass. Induces a little tingle at the back corners of the mouth but not so much as to induce salivation. The flavor, however, just might.
On a COVID weight-reduction campaign so dinner pairing was utterly unsuited and I need that first slug to face the task at hand. Which was halving a head of Napa (ha!) cabbage from the farm stand, slicing a small hureki turnip, dumping it all in a band and tossing in a little low sodium soy & heat. Let the wine settle for about 1.5 hours during prep, consumption and clean up.
On return- slate is gone, blueberry is reduced to a trace, the pinch at the back of the mouth is gone. The sips just roll in, the slipping over the lips, slathering across teeth and drapes rich silky goodness across the tongue, languishing there for a good while. On purpose, it induces a subtle tendency to savor. (At least, this bottle does.) I would call this a long finish- and a very pleasant one. Reading the label and investigating some of the many videos and links online (pay attention, there’s Shannon Farm and Shannon Ridge), the stark reality of the chord that would be struck were this wine beside some fresh lambchops made me wistful…A second glass and I imagined what a treat it would be to also share some of this wine alongside a not-too-sweet desert. The wine itself is not too sweet either, and would balance a restrained desert dish quite well. I don’t at all find it to be a fruit-bomb…but see the opening caveat. I find this to be an extremely, uncommonly pleasant daily drinker. I don’t find it complex per se, but I’d definitely offer this wine near the front end of a gathering, were such things to happen, rather than the end when tastebuds might be a bit more blunted. This is one to enjoy. Speaking of which…so it’s 2019….I don’t have the skills to assist its potential to evolve or to guesstimate optimal window, I hope others are able to comment on that aspect.
Had to enlist the roommate to share the joy in her own way, she’s more expressive than I am anyway.
@smtcapecod Thanks for good and fun review and nice pics (and cute doggie, EDIT: roommate!). Interesting that you mention (wild) blueberry. Based on username and foliage in photos, I’m guessing you may be in the far NorthEast and you might mean Maine blueberries, the cute tiny intense ones. That is a very different (and good) blueberry flavor than what most are used to. I am now in the NorthWest and here the blueberries are large and juicy and very flavorful, but only have a brief season. But very different from the ones I call “Maine” blueberries but not sure what the official name is.
Both are very good. Sadly, most people who get blueberries from grocery stores get “default” blueberries which have none of the charm of either unique kind.
So anyway thanks for letting me remember wild berry-picking in the mountains of Maine, even if that’s not where you are! And I do have a much better idea of what this wine would be like, based on your description.
@pmarin Thank you, I’m glad that some of it rang true! At this point I’m marooned in Maryland. But yes, I was drawing from some time as a Ranger in the Northeast, when breakfast might consist of foraged endemic blueberries (or their cousin Huckleberries) or cranberries depending on the season. Their flavor varies but regardless of conditions the wild ones I have experience with are mild and do not trend to sweet, and they don’t get mealy. It should’ve occurred to me that was a regional descriptor. Looking back at my few notes, I actually wrote boysenberry…but I don’t have much actual experience with that fruit so guess I retreated to that which I knew. Much of the fruit and even vegetables are manipulated for higher sugar content now. And its a shifting baseline as the years and generations unfold. Anyway, glad my ramble triggered some good memories!
@pmarin@smtcapecod Northern Ontario grows a ton of kick-ass wild blueberries too. And Newfoundlanders will swear theirs are better than either those or the ones from across the way in Maine.
With a ‘California’ appellation, one might be curious to know where the grapes were sourced. I’m guessing much of the fruit is San Joaquin Valley, or it would have specified a less generic AVA….
@rpm I noticed the same thing and was hoping someone would ask. And then, maybe, someone would answer???
But then I think I am seeing this generic label more often recently. I agree it’s partly because of what you say, sometimes a large general area will be many AVAs and won’t meet the legal requirements to designate. But might in fact be a carefully chosen blend, just from multiple sources that are distant.
OR, it might be whatever is found leftover thrown into a vat.
@pmarin
In my experience, if it’s really something special by way of blend that defies the AVA rules, most marketers would go out of their way to tell you how it was chosen or why it’s special. For large AVAs that encompass quite a bit of area, we do have county AVAs (which allow 25% of grapes to come from other counties) and the even larger North Coast AVA. Those are usually the AVAs you see on wines whose grapes come from multiple sources.
@rpm Shannon Ridge Winery is in Lake County, and some of their wines are Clear Lake appellation. If they blended in wine from immediately South then it’s Sonoma or Napa. So if it’s, say, their Cab and someone else’s Merlot, then it’s probably easiest to just call it California. They also just bought Steele, who has some sources in the Central Coast. Just a guess.
@salcorn
I dunno, based on that, seems to me they ought to be able to use North Coast AVA as long as <15% of the grapes come from other places such as the Central Coast, Lodi or points San Joaquin…. No one uses a more generic AVA than he or she has to….
@rpm@salcorn Yeah I would say something with a Vintner heading that explained the background would help a lot (even if “we found a bunch of barrels of xx from yy at a good price and we thought it would work well, so we added it.”) nothing wrong with that.
@pmarin@rpm@salcorn Yes to all the above.
I’ve also heard a winemaker say that sometimes they keep it California appellation to allow for flexibility in future vintages without having to back through TTB label approval. And for a relatively inexpensive bottle that doesn’t sound crazy…
2019 Shannon Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon, California
Tasting Notes
Specs
What’s Included
4-bottles:
Case:
Price Comparison
$264/Case at Shannon Ridge for 6x 2019 Shannon Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon, California
About The Winery
Available States
AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, IL, IN, IA, KS, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NM, NY, NC, ND, OK, OR, PA, RI, TX, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI
Estimated Delivery
Friday, Jul 9 - Tuesday, Jul 13
Shannon Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon
4 bottles for $54.99 $13.75/bottle + $2/bottle shipping
Case of 12 for $119.99 $10/bottle + $1/bottle shipping
A bottle of Shannon Ranch 2019 California Cabernet Sauvignon arrived at our house on Tuesday.
What a joy it is to be a wine rat! Casemates, I’m here whenever you need me!
On Wednesday, myself and 3 others each had a small/medium sized glass with dinner. We decanted the Shannon Ranch for 2-3 hours before drinking. I drank the final two glasses with dinner Thursday and Friday. To spice things up (and to make this ridiculously unfair), we opened up the 2019 Shannon Ranch alongside a $50-60 2014 Napa Cabernet from one of our favorite small lot producers.
To cut to the chase, we all agreed that the Shannon Ranch bats way beyond its cost profile. I didn’t know the exact cost, but from googling it, it looked like it retails at $16 (!) so it might be as low as the ~$10 bottle range on Casemates. We all agreed that we’d consider it a great value at the $16 retail price and an incredible steal at the casemates price. For anyone looking for a weekday (or weekend), low cost, solid QPR cabernet, this is a no-brainer of a purchase.
It is a dry wine, with moderate tannins. It has a relatively low alcohol content (13.8%) for a California Cab, but the flavor is robust, with a pretty in-your-face jammy/fruit-forward profile. The Wednesday group noted black cherry, blackberry, and oak.
The wine held up very well on night 2 and was still going strong on night 3. And how did it hold up against one of our favorite 2014 Napa Cabs? Like expected, it’s a very hard comparison point, but the Shannon Ranch held up much better than what seemed plausible. But what was interesting was the robust flavor profile of Shannon Ranch practically drowned out the 2014 Napa Cab.
Earlier in 2021, I was a rat for The Mongrel Rouge magnum. While these are very different wines (the Mongrel Rouge was a pinot-based blend) and I liked the Mongrel Rouge, I’d pick the Shannon Ranch over it without question, even at equivalent price points.
Is Shannon Ranch ultra-complex? No, I wouldn’t say that. But it’s a very pleasant drinker that I believe many folks will enjoy, and a crowd-pleaser to share with friends.
@stevenfarber527 excellent rattage report!
@stevenfarber527 FYI, the bottle we drank this against was 2014 White Rock Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon.
@stevenfarber527 Thanks!
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: Tax & Shipping not included in savings calculations)
2019 Shannon Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon - $45 = 27.26%
Happy to have the chance to offer some rat service here. Kudos to Casemates for providing ample advance notice, bottle arrived packaged in thick Styrofoam insulation- warm outside, bottle was not. Recap- amateur pallet, untrained in proper use of descriptors.
That said…BLUF this wine was great. I’m buyin’.
Quick pop and pour- On the nose I didn’t find it very assertive, noticed current, a soft cherry leaning and something…not must…not offensive…mineralish- I’d categorize it as a light background flavor of wet cement or better yet slate. On swirl- beautiful deep color (reminds me of a custom Porsche color, Vampire red…), appealing cabernet with (wild) blueberry undertones.
My photography aspirations didn’t quite live up to the task with the cell phone there…bummer blurry reflection in the glass…but point is that there was a nice, resilient coating of the glass. Induces a little tingle at the back corners of the mouth but not so much as to induce salivation. The flavor, however, just might.
On a COVID weight-reduction campaign so dinner pairing was utterly unsuited and I need that first slug to face the task at hand. Which was halving a head of Napa (ha!) cabbage from the farm stand, slicing a small hureki turnip, dumping it all in a band and tossing in a little low sodium soy & heat. Let the wine settle for about 1.5 hours during prep, consumption and clean up.
On return- slate is gone, blueberry is reduced to a trace, the pinch at the back of the mouth is gone. The sips just roll in, the slipping over the lips, slathering across teeth and drapes rich silky goodness across the tongue, languishing there for a good while. On purpose, it induces a subtle tendency to savor. (At least, this bottle does.) I would call this a long finish- and a very pleasant one. Reading the label and investigating some of the many videos and links online (pay attention, there’s Shannon Farm and Shannon Ridge), the stark reality of the chord that would be struck were this wine beside some fresh lambchops made me wistful…A second glass and I imagined what a treat it would be to also share some of this wine alongside a not-too-sweet desert. The wine itself is not too sweet either, and would balance a restrained desert dish quite well. I don’t at all find it to be a fruit-bomb…but see the opening caveat. I find this to be an extremely, uncommonly pleasant daily drinker. I don’t find it complex per se, but I’d definitely offer this wine near the front end of a gathering, were such things to happen, rather than the end when tastebuds might be a bit more blunted. This is one to enjoy. Speaking of which…so it’s 2019….I don’t have the skills to assist its potential to evolve or to guesstimate optimal window, I hope others are able to comment on that aspect.
Had to enlist the roommate to share the joy in her own way, she’s more expressive than I am anyway.
@smtcapecod Thanks for good and fun review and nice pics (and cute doggie, EDIT: roommate!). Interesting that you mention (wild) blueberry. Based on username and foliage in photos, I’m guessing you may be in the far NorthEast and you might mean Maine blueberries, the cute tiny intense ones. That is a very different (and good) blueberry flavor than what most are used to. I am now in the NorthWest and here the blueberries are large and juicy and very flavorful, but only have a brief season. But very different from the ones I call “Maine” blueberries but not sure what the official name is.
Both are very good. Sadly, most people who get blueberries from grocery stores get “default” blueberries which have none of the charm of either unique kind.
So anyway thanks for letting me remember wild berry-picking in the mountains of Maine, even if that’s not where you are! And I do have a much better idea of what this wine would be like, based on your description.
@pmarin Thank you, I’m glad that some of it rang true! At this point I’m marooned in Maryland. But yes, I was drawing from some time as a Ranger in the Northeast, when breakfast might consist of foraged endemic blueberries (or their cousin Huckleberries) or cranberries depending on the season. Their flavor varies but regardless of conditions the wild ones I have experience with are mild and do not trend to sweet, and they don’t get mealy. It should’ve occurred to me that was a regional descriptor. Looking back at my few notes, I actually wrote boysenberry…but I don’t have much actual experience with that fruit so guess I retreated to that which I knew. Much of the fruit and even vegetables are manipulated for higher sugar content now. And its a shifting baseline as the years and generations unfold. Anyway, glad my ramble triggered some good memories!
@pmarin @smtcapecod Northern Ontario grows a ton of kick-ass wild blueberries too. And Newfoundlanders will swear theirs are better than either those or the ones from across the way in Maine.
@smtcapecod omg the puppers… Give a scritch for me, please
/giphy haphazard-occasional-grass
Alternate music selections to the one on the front page:
Cake, Sheep Go To Heaven (Goats go to Hell)
Floyd Sheep
Nostalgia and Respect
With a ‘California’ appellation, one might be curious to know where the grapes were sourced. I’m guessing much of the fruit is San Joaquin Valley, or it would have specified a less generic AVA….
@rpm I noticed the same thing and was hoping someone would ask. And then, maybe, someone would answer???
But then I think I am seeing this generic label more often recently. I agree it’s partly because of what you say, sometimes a large general area will be many AVAs and won’t meet the legal requirements to designate. But might in fact be a carefully chosen blend, just from multiple sources that are distant.
OR, it might be whatever is found leftover thrown into a vat.
@rpm am curious about that as well . . .
@pmarin
In my experience, if it’s really something special by way of blend that defies the AVA rules, most marketers would go out of their way to tell you how it was chosen or why it’s special. For large AVAs that encompass quite a bit of area, we do have county AVAs (which allow 25% of grapes to come from other counties) and the even larger North Coast AVA. Those are usually the AVAs you see on wines whose grapes come from multiple sources.
@rpm Shannon Ridge Winery is in Lake County, and some of their wines are Clear Lake appellation. If they blended in wine from immediately South then it’s Sonoma or Napa. So if it’s, say, their Cab and someone else’s Merlot, then it’s probably easiest to just call it California. They also just bought Steele, who has some sources in the Central Coast. Just a guess.
@salcorn
I dunno, based on that, seems to me they ought to be able to use North Coast AVA as long as <15% of the grapes come from other places such as the Central Coast, Lodi or points San Joaquin…. No one uses a more generic AVA than he or she has to….
@rpm @salcorn Yeah I would say something with a Vintner heading that explained the background would help a lot (even if “we found a bunch of barrels of xx from yy at a good price and we thought it would work well, so we added it.”) nothing wrong with that.
@pmarin @rpm @salcorn Yes to all the above.
I’ve also heard a winemaker say that sometimes they keep it California appellation to allow for flexibility in future vintages without having to back through TTB label approval. And for a relatively inexpensive bottle that doesn’t sound crazy…