Sunday, December 20, 2009

Dante 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve (California)

Found a bottle of this while looking for fresh pasta sheets in Michigan; it was quite the harrowing journey actually ... I decided to make a replica of a dish I had a few weeks ago: Scallop Ravioli, and so I needed some fresh uncooked pasta sheets that I could fashion into circles and create round raviolis from. I thought it would be a simple task, afterall, I find myself in America, and you can find anything here - except, as it turns out, fresh uncooked pasta sheets. I went to 2 big grocery stores one day and 4 the next, each sent me somewhere else, till finally, at the Westborn Market the guy told me, "I know what you are looking for we buy them in bulk, but we don't sell them." I told him about my troubles and he kindly sold me half a dozen. But while at the market, and while to went in search of the sheets, I walked into the Westborn wine market and looked around, finding this bottle of Cab for under $10. I bought the pasta and the bottle, and now two days later I am trying the wine with a lasagna (Friday's Pinot Grigio was paired with the scallops). The wine was exactly as expected, juicy red fruit flavours with a little cinnamon, plum and dark chocolate. The alcohol was fairly robust at 14.5%, but hardly noticeable on either the nose or palate, and the finish was smooth and yummy. With a little time in glass the nose developd some very nice spiced blackberry notes while the palate remained true to the red fruit.

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