December 15,
2005 I left work at 6 pm and called my wife to let her know I was going to do some Christmas shopping. She was also running errands, and we would both be home by 7:30. She had some sirloin steaks that would be easy to cook. I had recently picked up a bottle of Bordeaux from Chateau Tour de Mirambeaux that I wanted to taste. Sometimes things work out for the best. This deep burgundy colored red wine, with 13.5% alcohol, was featured at a local wine store tasting for December. As regular readers will note, I favor old world and particularly Italian wines, because Italy is where I learned to like and appreciate wine. As I learned more about wines and regions I learned to really appreciate French wines. I liked this at the tasting, and tonight was my chance to taste it with food at home. We opened the bottle and served it in our big Barolo glasses. It is a classic Bordeaux, with 70% Merlot and 30% Cabernet Savignon. It is a smooth, not overly tannic wine. After the first sip, Kit said just one word, "Cherries". We all agreed. We also tasted raspberries, prune, and blackberry. It has a medium full body, and was great with the steak. However, when we had salad, the wine reviews plummeted. We discovered that the acid of the salad dressing killed the wine. With a cracker and water, the wine returned. I've been using the new wine scoring sheet, and I left the dinner table to print 3 sheets. I returned with paper and pens, and Dory whined that she didn't want to do homework at the table. Fair enough, guilty, the homework was optional. Kit and I started in on the sheet, and Dory joined in. Kit scored the wine 14/20, Dory scored it 12.5/20, and I scored the wine 15.5/20. So Kit was in the center. After dinner we had clementines, and once again
the flavor disappeared. The cracker and water made the taste return.
Then we had chocolate morsels. Often chocolate and bordeau gos
well together. Not this time. When it's a good match, the chocolate
makes the wine rich, creamy, and multilayered. This time the chocolate
made the wine taste fruity. Simple and fruity. Still, the wine
was enjoyable, and great with the steak. Yesterday Bryce Muir, our neighbor, died after falling through thin ice while skating in our town. He was a very good man, an artist, a husband and a father. He had painted several views of our house, which we got when we were in Italy. Bryce lived life to the fullest, and there is a lesson for all of us. He lived life well, died too early, and he will be missed. |
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