Friday morning we woke up to an inch of new snow on the ground but the day improved from there. Today we woke up to green grass and sunny skies, and by the time the day was in full bloom we were at 60 degrees. Yesterday was braising weather, today was grilling season.
There was a special on lamb at the local market since it is only a week until Easter, but the best deal was on porterhouse steaks, very thick porterhouse steaks.
The steak was grilled and there was the true sign of spring to accompany it, a baked potato with the very first, cut chives. The chives were up enough to start cutting and a handful was snipped over the potato. Heaven!
The wine wasn't too shabby either. It was a 2004 Franciscan Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. Medium color in the glass, the wine smelled of cassis and mocha and earth. Lots of fruit in the taste, mostly cassis and black plums. There was a good amount of oak, but certainly nothing over done. The acid was good and the length of finish was tremendous. This wine was perfectly mature and perfectly balanced. It tasted great by itself and it tasted even better with the steak. It was remarkable for a Napa Cabernet two reasons. It was only 13.5% alcohol and it was only $24. I continue to wonder why so many folks making wine in Napa Valley seem to think that higher alcohol and over extraction makes a good wine. A good wine that was fun to drink.
A side note: yes, the blog looks different. After three years it was time for an update and overhaul. There will probably be some tweaking over the next week or two, but I think we'll stay with this 'white wine' look.
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