Meeker Wines are Fabulous!
If you don't get out of your neighborhood and comfort zone, you'll never know what joys you are missing!
My mother, Fran Vick brought home some red wine from her recent trip to Napa. She knows my wife Julie and I explore the world looking for world class Zins, Cabs and Pinot Noirs. The exotic Zin label captured our interest immediately. I love big fruit-forward wines. Julie likes her wines a little more complex, even a smidge hot (relative to my preference—at least that’s how I perceive her druthers.)
We couldn’t wait to open the Zin. We poured a splash just to taste it right out of the bottle: Fantastic! It was smooth and had that fruit forward flavor I was hoping for. After a vigorous swirl I sniffed a bouquet of aromas that made my mouth water. I was picking up the fruit first, followed by a hint of tobacco, leather and finished with rose blossom. The finish of the sip was velvety without being buttery and left my palette crystalline ready for another taste. We chased the Zin with steaks grilled over hickory and oak, grilled corn on the cob and a field green salad with home-made balsamic vinegar and mustard dressing. The Zin held up to all of these intense flavors and in fact became bolder and smoother as our dinner progressed. We were only unhappy that we had but one bottle to savor!
Our expectations for the Cab were extremely high as the Zin was so wonderful. We were not disappointed. The experience was much the same as the Zin. Your Cab, in fact to my nose and taste, leans toward what I like and prefer in a great Zin: big fruit forward, easy to enjoy without decanting but expands in complexity and enjoyment as it is poured and enjoyed. As one would expect in a superb quality Cab, it was very smooth and easy to drink at first opening. The fruit and blossom overtones through out the course of enjoying the bottle were fantastic. We grilled salmon over cherry wood, with sautéed veggies and it was a perfect compliment. And again the only disappointment was that we had but one bottle to enjoy.
I have fallen in love with a Willamette Valley Pinot Noir which is the house wine for Abbey Road Farms, in Carlton, Oregon. (Fellow traveler John Stuart and his wife Judi invited me to play a concert this summer with Kenny Rankin.) It is smooth, fruit forward, easy to drink but big with wonderful overtones and fun surprises on the palette. Your Zin and Cab both strike me the same way, and I now have the wonderful conundrum of too many choices and not enough nights in the week!
I’ve discovered the problem with great wine is that it takes me a bottle to cook dinner and then always want a glass (or two more) with dinner and I hate to open that second bottle for fear of wasting any. It would be a cool idea to offer a bottle of wine for cooks that has maybe 25% more than the 750ml standard so that those of us who cook don’t have to open that second bottle for dinner.
Thank you for sharing your wonderful wine and your time and your kind selves with my mother and for sending her home with your Zin and Cab. Wow! Julie and I look forward to coming by for a tasting and meeting you as we scour the country side looking for places to play and share my music.
Keep making your wonderful wine. It inspires me to keep writing music!
Hook’em,
Ross
