Saturday Night – Just a quick one

My wife was sick all week so our normal Saturday night with Mick and Amy was not looking good. Thankfully she was better on Saturday so we decided to have dinner but not our usual appetizer, dinner and dessert with three bottles of wines. Instead we cut the dinner down to dinner and dessert with one bottle of wine.

"You lika da sauce?"

I had been craving steak all week so I picked up four filets from the local butcher in the morning. The dinner menu was beef tenderloin with grilled shrimp, Béarnaise sauce, green beans, baby potatoes and Greek salad. Wine wise I went with a bottle of 2000 Château de Candale from Haut-Médoc.

"Too bad this was my first and only bottle!"

The nose was very French with plum, cherry, cedar, tobacco, moss and coffee notes. Tasting the wine on its own, the first thing you noticed was the balance of the wine was out as the acidity was a touch high. I’m not sure if the acid was too high or the super fine tannins made the acidity seem high. The wine did have good fruit for a French wine and the finish lingered in a nice way. Where this wine shined was with the food, it was a stunning pairing with the steak and Béarnaise sauce though it did get a little funky at times with the Greek salad.

"Mmmm...Feta"

Here is the group rating for the wine -Mick – 87, Mark – 89, Kathy – 88, Amy – 87, Overall – 87.75

"Black and White cake"

Here is the LCBO information -

Château de Candale 2000
Vintages 43679
750 mL bottle
Price: $ 35.65
Wine, Red Wine,
13.0% Alcohol/Vol.
Sugar Content : XD
Made in: Bordeaux, France
By: Dubos Freres & Cie

Release Date: Nov 10, 2007

Tasting Note - From the Cruse family of the Margaux grand cru Château d'Issan, this simple Haut-Médoc wine rivals many much pricier Bordeaux, with its classic combination of plum and black-cherry fruitiness; classic Bordeaux. (Richard Nalley, www.foodandwine.com, March 2005)

For dessert we had a Black and White cake which was very good. The wine was decent with the cake but not amazing.

It was nice getting back to a semi-normal Saturday night with Mick and Amy and I’m already looking forward to next Saturday.

Cheers!

Mark