2010 Mirror Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

Well here we are at the beginning of a long weekend, and what better thing to do than open a nice bottle of wine!  Tonight I've opened a bottle of wine that my boss gave me, as he recently discovered this winery run by a fellow football player with roots in our area who is making great wine and giving a portion of his sales to a charitable foundation focused on children's charities tied to health and education.  The football star turned wine maker is Rick Mirer, a former Notre Dame quarterback who was born in Goshen, Indiana and eventually played in the NFL (of course my boss played football at Purdue, so there is a natural connection).  And the wine?  It's the 2010 Mirror Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon!

The wine is a deep purple color in the glass with a bit of opacity.  The nose is a pleasant blend of dark fruit, black currant, plum and cherry with a layer of earthy notes, cedar, forest floor, dark chocolate and spice over the top.  The taste is a bit tightly wound at first, but if you let it breathe for 45 minutes or so, it really opens up with concentrated black fruit flavor and a richness that really presents a nice counterbalance to the intensity of the tannins, resulting in a warm, but smooth, dry finish.

Overall I would rate this wine a solid 8.5, it's drinking very nicely now but I think it has a lot of potential to age very nicely over the next 5-10 years.  Tonight I am enjoying this with a rare grilled T-bone steak along with some steamed fingerling potatoes and some fresh grilled asparagus.  This is the type of Napa Cabernet that really plays well with a sizable piece of rare beef, I highly recommend it!