The lion gets you first. It roars across the label in black and turquoise, all Art Deco lines, and the bottle underneath is heavier and broader than most reds on the shelf. Juggernaut Hillside Cabernet Sauvignon sits in grocery aisles across Texas dressed like a wine that costs twice as much. For the most part, the wine lives up to the outfit.
Juggernaut is made by Bogle Family Vineyards, the family winery in Clarksburg, California, a little south of Sacramento in the Delta. Bogle has spent more than 50 years building a reputation on wines that taste better than their price tags suggest, and the Cabernet was Juggernaut’s first release.
The idea started in the vineyard. Bogle winemaker Eric Aafedt kept noticing that Cabernet from hillside sites came in different from everything else in the cellar. As he told the winery’s newsletter, those grapes were “just full of color and aromatics, intensity and tannins.”
There’s real viticulture behind that. Vines on steep, rocky ground get less water and fewer nutrients, so they push out fewer clusters and the berries stay small. Smaller berries mean more skin relative to juice, and the skin is where Cabernet keeps its color, tannin and much of its flavor.
The wine is 100 percent hillside Cabernet with a broad California appellation. It spends 11 months in new French oak and lands at 14.5 percent alcohol. Bogle doesn’t name the vineyards on the bottle, though earlier vintages drew from the Sierra Foothills, Lake County, Alexander Valley and Livermore Valley. Most shelves are carrying the 2022 right now.
In the glass, it’s nearly opaque, with a purple edge that says young wine. The nose leads with black currant and blackberry, then vanilla from the new oak, with anise and a little cocoa behind it. On the palate it’s full and velvety, with ripe cassis through the middle, firm tannins and a medium-long finish that keeps that anise going.
Straight out of the bottle, the oak can crowd the fruit, so open it 30 to 45 minutes before dinner. Temperature matters too. At 14.5 percent, it shows its alcohol fast when served warm, and plenty of Texas kitchens run warm. Twenty minutes in the refrigerator brings it to the low 60s, where it’s at its best.
This is a wine built for red meat and the grill. Juggernaut’s own suggestion is a coffee-rubbed porterhouse, and the bitter edge of the rub plays well against the vanilla and dark fruit. Brisket with a heavy black pepper bark works just as well. Roast chicken or a light pasta will get run over.
Juggernaut Hillside Cabernet typically sells for around $20, and often less on sale. At that price, it delivers the size and polish of California Cabernet costing two or three times as much. It won’t pass for a single-vineyard Napa bottling, and it isn’t trying to. Bogle has since added a Napa Valley Cabernet to the Juggernaut line, but the Hillside is still the one that made the brand.
For a weeknight steak or a backyard cookout, this is a smart buy. It’s sold at grocery and liquor stores throughout Dallas-Fort Worth, and the winery’s store locator will point you to the closest one.
