2006 Kinkead Ridge Viognier Roussanne

If this is global warming I'll have another glass, please!

August is my least favorite month of the year; it's hot, it's humid, the days are long and the nights are shorter, and it's usually a pain. Not so this year and definitely not so today. The temperature only reached 75 degrees and there has been a cool breeze for the entire day. It's more like mid to late October than mid August.

Dinner tonight was very close to perfect and the wine was more than its equal. The wine was a Kinkead Ridge Viognier (63%) - Roussanne (37%) from the 2006 vintage. Dinner was a pan seared swordfish steak marinated in lemon juice, olive oil, fresh rosemary, red pepper flakes, and a little pepper. The real star of the meal was the farro Nicoise that accompanied the fish.

This was the Italian grain, farro with tuna, olives, just picked cherry tomatoes, haricot verts, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, lemon zest, olive oil and chopped hard boiled eggs. It was served in barely poached leaves of Belgian endive. Calling it full flavored would be an understatement. Calling it delicious would not.

The wine now has two years bottle age on it and I doubt that it is possible for it to get any better. There was the distinctive oiliness of the Viognier and the robustness of the Roussanne playing off each other. Fruit, green grapes, melon, a little fig and a few other flavors all intermingled here. They were balanced by wonderful acid. There were a number of ingredients in the farro dish and each bite was a little different depending on what was on the fork. The wine tasted tart and fresh with the tuna, refined and elegant with the eggs and farro and a little understated with the beans and olives.

Kinkead Ridge does an excellent job with all their wines, but this particular wine from this particular vintage may be their best to date. There are two bottles left in the cellar, and that may be the best news of all.