The health benefits of wine have been debated hotly back and forth in the medical community for a few decades now. As best I can tell, the antioxidants in a moderate amount of red wine might be good for your vascular system, and a small amount of alcohol might have good effects on stress. With that said, the sugar and alcohols found in all wine are generally not good for you, so I don’t think we can consider any wine to be a healthy drink as such.
With that said, today I’m taking a look at FitVine’s Cabernet Sauvignon. I’ll start with a little about the company before getting into my tasting procedure, offering you my tasting notes, and giving you my recommendations for pairing.
FitVine operates out of California, and they’re focused on wines that are “better for you” by having less sugar. I was attracted to these wines for that very reason: I both prefer dry wine and am trying to get seriously fit post-graduate school. Looking into them, they have a reasonably large selection of both red and white wines with almost no sugar per bottle. Their concept is interesting, let’s see if it holds up in the tasting.
To try this dry red, I did as one does with most red wines: I poured a glass, gave it about five minutes to breathe, and then took a hearty sniff before taking my first sip.
On the nose, I get some slightly acidic raspberry notes. As expected, there’s no sweetness to be detected here so far. The scent is not terribly verbose, however, and I had to take a second sniff for this review.
The raspberry notes from the nose are still present on the palette, but there’s a distinct tartness that goes with this as well. The closest I’ve tasted are tart cherries. The wine, thanks to having no real sugar left in the bottle, is very dry and has a thin mouthfeel. The flavors are strong, but the wine is not overly bold.
In terms of taste, I’d give this wine a passing recommendation for folks who are looking for an exceptionally dry red wine. The flavor does not linger for too long in the mouth. Thanks to the apparent lack of tannins in this wine, there also might be fewer lingering headaches for those folks who seem to always get a headache after a sip of red.
In terms of pairing, this wine would go well to balance out sweet foods, like fruits or even ice cream. A raspberry sorbet would be an excellent companion to this, though it would kind of defeat the purpose of a low-sugar wine. It would also stand up to heavy red meat such as a beef roast.
Overall, this is a wine that I would certainly take if I found it on sale, but will not be looking for it especially. It’s a passable red, but does not have the richness and body that the sugars bring to the table, which, sadly, is missing here in terms of the overall flavor profile.