Showing posts with label Bordeaux-style blend. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bordeaux-style blend. Show all posts
30 August, 2011
26 August, 2011
Askerne 2007 Merlot-Franc-Malbec
Super-fruity nose was a bit daunting, but first taste was pretty standard merlot. Over the course of dinner, we paired with spinach and blue cheese salad, lamb and broiled root vegetables (kumara, carrot and onion) and fruit (pear and golden kiwi) with museli and Greek yogurt. About mid meal the cab franc and malbec began to predominate, but no structure as such ever emerged and from start to finish this wine felt like an experiment.
20 July, 2011
1989 Chateau Lynch Bages Bordeaux
Date tasted: July, 2011
Where: Gillette, WY
Price: don't ask
Notes: Thanks to Ken at the Prime Rib for decanting this classic Pauillac Bordeaux before we arrived and seating us in his impressive cellar for a fantastic dinner. Great claret color, very light camphor and a hint of fruit on the nose, but not much else. Smooth as silk, lightly acid, notes of pencil-lead and time-subdued tannins--almost no fruit there. Paired magically with escargot, caprese, filet and creme brulee.
10 May, 2011
Black Hills Estate 2008 Nota Bene
Date tasted: 11-12 May, 2011
Where: purchased Vancouver, BC (tasted in Mpls)
Price: $$$
Notes: a Bordeaux-style blend of 41% Merlot, 48% Cabernet Sauvignon and 11% Cab Franc. A lucky find, as this vintage had been technically "sold out" for almost a year. Fruity on the nose, but not at all jammy. Merlot does a nice job of balancing the heavier notes in the cabs. A little shorter on the palette than I'd hoped, but worked well with a variety of flavors: dark chocolate, St. Marcellin soft cheese, baba ganoush and smoked AK sockeye salmon.
2007 Road 13 Fifth Element
Date tasted: 9 May, 2011
Where: purchased Vancouver, BC (tasted in Mpls)
Price: $$
Notes: a Bordeaux-style blend of 58% Merlot, 32% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Cab Franc. Top of the line blend from this South Okanagan Valley vintner. Nice tannins and oak (s?), as well as notes of leather and tobacco, all finely enough balanced to drink now, but likely to age well, too. Paired with home cooked round tip steak (to which it was added as part of a jerk, herbs de provence and au jus reduction), followed by prosciutto-wrapped dates stuffed with fromage bleu and thick cut uncured bacon. This is a serious effort, to be paired with red meat.
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