Happy Friday! I trust you all has a wonderful week, mine was somewhat busy, particularly this afternoon as I was rushing around to get everything I need for my "Taste My Vacation" dinner party tomorrow night (more on that in another post!). But at least during all that rushing around, I found a wonderful piece of meat for my dinner tonight and when I got home I found a lovely bottle of wine to have with it, the 2008 L'Ecole No. 41 Apogee, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (60%), Merlot (29%), Malbec (8%) and Cabernet Franc (3%) from the Pepper Bridge Vineyard in the Walla Walla Valley.
The wine is a deep, inky black at the center, with bright ruby along the edges. The nose is that of a classic Bordeaux style blend, ripe blackberries, cherries and cassis with undertones of leather and basalt. The taste is much less fruit forward than I was expecting, but really starting to sing beautifully, as an initial rush of cherries and black stone fruit give way to pleasing notes of cherry cola, dark chocolate and dusty limestone midpalate. The finish is just lovely, as you have notes of fresh herbs and wonderfully integrated tannins that give this wine a wonderfully smooth, voluptuous and very dry finish that seems to last until your next sip.
Overall, I would rate this wine a solid 9.5, as Walla Walla Bordeaux Style blends don't often come better than this one. This wine would pair beautifully with hard aged cheeses, braised short ribs, or my choice tonight, a rare grilled USDA Prime tomahawk ribeye, with grilled asparagus and steamed red potatoes with butter and parsley. The wonderful fruit and dry finish of this wine is perfect to accent a rich, prime ribeye, cheers!
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