Saturday Night – If it walks like a Duck…

It was our turn to host the usual Saturday night dinner with Mick and Amy and my lovely wife requested Caesar salad as the starter.  I hadn’t made it in a while so I went with that as the starter and paired it with a Louis Jadot Chardonnay.  We have reviewed this wine and food combo before so I won’t be doing it again but will add I really love this pairing.

For the main course, I did Chimichurri steak with grilled pita and a side salad of corn, red onion, tomato and basil in a light Oil and Vinegar dressing.  Chimichurri is made from finely chopped parsley, minced garlic, olive oil, oregano, red wine vinegar, and red pepper flakes.  Normally with steak, I’d pair this with a Cabernet Sauvignon but with the Chimichurri sauce and the sweet corn in the side salad, I thought a Merlot would be a better pairing.   I selected a 2004 Duckhorn Vineyards “Napa Valley” Merlot to go with this course.

The nose on the Duckhorn was easy to find with big raspberry notes and some pine and chocolate in the background.  As the wine sat for a bit, the raspberry aroma faded more into the background and some nutmeg and mint aromas appeared.  I love wines that change nose like that as it is fun to catch new and interesting aromas each time you come back to it.  Tasting the wine, black current and chocolate were the dominate flavours.  It was very nicely balanced with lots of acidity and tannin and it was very dry on the mid-palate but it finished with a very smooth and lingering finish.  It was a great pairing with the main course as it was more than big enough to stand up to all the different flavours of the dish.  I will note that I would suggest decanting this wine as there was a lot of sediment in it.

Here is the group rating for the wine -Mick – 90, Mark - 90, Kathy – 91, Amy – 90, Overall – 90.25.

Here is the LCBO information on the wine –

DUCKHORN MERLOT 2009
VINTAGES 992529
750 mL bottle
Price: $ 56.95
Made in: California, USA
By: Duckhorn Vineyards
Release Date: Feb 18, 2012
Wine, Red Wine
Varietal: Merlot
* Note – this is for the 2009 version and not the 2004 version reviewed here.

I pretty sure I picked this bottle up at a $70 price point so it has come down in price over the years probably due to the high Canadian dollar.  The 2004 was the only bottle of Duckhorn Merlot I had in my wine rack and I will have to correct that by picking up a bottle or two of the 2009 as I really liked this wine.  It is one of the better Merlots I have tried in a while.

For dessert I made dark chocolate Corn Flake cakes (think Rice Krispies squares but with Corn Flakes and chocolate) and homemade soft Caramel candy.  I don’t usually do a lot of baking but just had an urge and I knew the dark chocolate Corn Flake cakes would be a good match to go with the Merlot.

It was a fun night with good food and great company, in other words a typical Saturday night with Mick and Amy.

Cheers!

Mark