I will confess I'd never heard of either Leaping Horse or their parent label, Iron Stone Vineyards, located in Lodi, California. This is a family winery, and a product of the Kautz family Vineyards. John Kautz begin as a grape supplier, growing wine grapes on twelve acres in Lodi. Today the Kautz family owns several thousand acres of vineyards in Lodi, and California Sierra Foothills. The Leaping Horse wines (Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, Shiraz, Merlot, and Chardonnay) are from a single vineyard.

In the glass Leaping Horse Cabernet Sauvignon is a very deep red, verging on purple. Even though we let the bottle rest for twenty minutes or so, there was almost no initial aroma. The basic impression in terms of taste is blackberry, with a hint of oak. This is a light bodied wine, and barely coats the glass. Although I'd describe this as a more delicate Cabernet Sauvigion, it would do well with salads, say a spinach and bacon salad. The bacon and the Leaping Horse Cabernet Sauvignon would complement each other, without one overwhelming the other. This is another easy, drinkable wine, the sort of thing you might grab from the shelf when you've spontaneously invited the neighbor over for dinner.

We picked up this bottle as an impulse buy at one of those little gas station stores that was reducing inventory. It's a typical 13.5 ABV, and was a bargain price at $4.99 for a wine that usually seems to fall in the $7.00 to 10.00 range. I suspect that they're discontinuing or reducing inventory, since I'm seeing it priced online anywhere from 4.00 to 11, for the same wine.