A Couple of Kinkead Ridge Wines

Since this past weekend was the southern Ohio barrel tasting it seemed only fair to do a preview and a postscript in the wine and food department. That's exactly what we did.

On Friday night we opened a 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon and couldn't have been happier with the results. This wine is doing great in the bottle - and is doing better out of the bottle and in the glass. Great Cabernet structure with some forward fruit, good body, nice acid and tannins and oak that have integrated into the fruit. The nose was fruit, wood and tannin and smelled like Cabernet should smell. It was extremely food friendly with a pan seared pork chop and some riso pasta doused with 2009 pressed olive oil and some Pecorino Romano and black pepper and sprinkled with a little black truffle salt. Just the suggestion of the truffles being in the pasta brought out the earthiness in the wine. Very good wine that has to be at its peak, but not showing any signs of fading.

On Sunday we finally got around to fixing a turkey here at the house, having managed to eat at two other houses on Thanksgiving proper. We cooked the thirteen pound bird on the charcoal grill over indirect heat. It was a cool day and it took almost 3.5 hours but the results were great. There were a few oak chips scattered on the charcoal and that gave the brined bird a hint of smoke in the meat.

One of my favorite side dishes at Thanksgiving is one that I don't get unless I make it myself. So, there was a large pan of stuffing loaded with Chesapeake Bay oysters and some good oyster brine, fresh thyme, garlic, onions, celery, a little rosemary and small amount of red pepper flakes. It went into an aluminum pan and was baked on the grill with the turkey for the last hour.

There was one glass of the Cabernet left so we sampled some turkey with that and were more than pleased. The main wine was the second Kinkead Ridge wine of the weekend, the 2008 Viognier Roussanne. At the barrel tasting at the winery Nancy Bentley informed us that the Wine Enthusiast had rated the wine at 87 points. The review will be on the W.E. website in February. Good score and good progress in getting some national publications to look outside of California, Washington and New York.

The wine could still use some time in the bottle, but there was more than enough to like about it now. Fresh and young it tasted like a very good Rhone wine. The melon flavors were there along with some earthy spice, a little citrus and tart young grapes. It had the oily mouthfeel of a Condrieu. It was great with the turkey and with its notes of citrus peel it matched well with the oyster stuffing. The wine is 53% Viognier and 47% Roussanne.

The top photo is the Viognier grapes in the Kincaid vineyard in September of 2008, just before harvest.