Steak and Wine

The rain predicted for yesterday held off until very late last night so it was off to friends' for a very thick, grilled rib steak in the late afternoon and early evening.

There were two wines to go with the steak.  First was the 2004 Mazzocco  Home Ranch Zinfandel from Sonoma's Dry Creek Valley.  Extremely dark wine with a nose of dark plums and black raspberries and a little oak thrown in along the way.  Huge extraction and a complete blast of dark fruit in the taste.  There was some tannin hanging out on the sides of the tongue, but this wine was all about fruit.  My experience with wines this big is that they usually lack acid, and this one was a little low in that regard, but there was still enough there to help counteract the immense fruit taste.  Good, long finish that ended happily with some of the acid.

This was a wine that I was prepared to dislike before opening it since it checked in at 16.2% alcohol.  To its credit it remained balanced, though I still wouldn't want to drink more than a glass or two.  Good thing there were others to help.  A very well made wine.  No price on this wine as it was a gift from a friend who belongs to Mazzocco's wine club.

The second bottle was a 2002 Geyser Peak  Kuimelis Block Cabernet Sauvignon from the Alexander Valley in Sonoma.  This was another dark and extracted wine.  The nose was very closed and sulphery at the start.  Eventually it showed cassis and black cherries, some cinnamon and vanilla.  The cassis and cherries were there in the taste, along with the cinnamon.  This was another wine a little low in acid.  The tannins were good and well integrated into the wine.  The finish on this wine came up a little short.
At $45 a bottle it could have been better.

As for the steak, it was delicious.  It paired better with the Zinfandel than the Cabernet.