Friday, April 16, 2010

Wine Review – 2005 Mike Ditka Cabernet Sauvignon

Yeah, Mike Ditka makes wine now! The Hall of Fame tight end and Super Bowl-winning coach has his own wines now and let me tell you, they are quite surprising. Coach Ditka has partnered with Mendocino Wine Company and has his own brand of wines called Da Coach. Currently the label has 5 different wines; Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, and a blend called Kick Ass Red. I have had a few of these and I was pleasantly surprised with the quality and refinement in these wines.

For this post I will review the 2005 Mike Ditka Cabernet Sauvignon. I have had other wines that had famous sports or entertainment stars names associated with them and some of those wines fall flat. It seems they just paid the notable name a big chunk of cash to put their name on the bottle. So going into the first sip, I didn’t have high hopes. But I was pleasantly surprised when I first caught my first sniff. The bouquet has nice aromas of dark red fruit and a hint of herbs. On the palate, you will find hints of vanilla, oak and licorice. It had a nice smooth finish that seemed to linger for a while. This is a nice quality cab with bold flavors and smooth tannins.

Again, I was pleasantly surprised after trying this wine. It seems that Coach Ditka really takes pride in what he puts his name on. Like I mentioned earlier, I didn’t have high hopes, and it seems the Coach realizes that some people lend their names to products even if they aren’t good. While looking for an image on the internet I found this quote from Coach Ditka about his wines. “Everyone will buy it once, maybe because of the name, maybe not. But I think they'll buy it again. It's one of these deals where when you order it, you don't expect the worst and you don't expect the best, but it turns out to be a hell of a lot better than you expected.”

If you see this wine in your local store, don’t pass it up thinking it is just another way for the already wealthy person to make another buck. This is a legitimate wine that was very enjoyable and will go well with all kinds of food.

Cheers!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Alan, I'll try it, If they sell it here in Canada.

It reminds me of Wayne Gretzky's attempts at wine. you buy it becuase of the name, and then never buy it again. Horrible stuff.

Mark deGroot

Alan said...

Mark, I remember that Gretzky wine. I have never tasted any, but I did read that it was some horrible stuff! The Ditka wine is actually pretty good and worth a try!