Hearty Meal, Huge Wine

Yes, that's snow under the wine bottle in the picture above.  The wine was a 2006 Mazzocco Lytton Zinfandel.  This was a very big wine with a nose full of blackberry jam, strawberry jam, and a lot of alcohol.  The wine was almost viscous in the mouth and coated the tongue with intense fruit flavors. The finish was semi-sweet and had great length to it, but "refreshing" isn't in this wine's vocabulary. 

This was the wine that we drank with the long braised pot of short ribs and long ribs discussed below.  After braising the meat was removed from the pot, the braising liquid thoroughly skimmed of most of the fat and then returned to the dish with the meat.  The whole thing was allowed to cool to room temperature and then was refrigerated for two days for the flavors to mellow.

When the dish was reheated, a little unflavored gelatin was added and allowed to do its thing by providing a great mouth feel to the meat.  The whole thing was soft, rich, warming, satisfying and a perfect meal for a cold night.   

There would have been two ways to go with wine and we went with the big wine, though one large glass was all.  A high acid red that cut through the remaining fat in the dish would have been just as good, but there was nothing wrong with the Zinfandel complimenting the meat. 

15.6% alcohol and the wine was a gift from a friend.