2010 L'Ecole No. 41 Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

Happy Saturday!  Today was a fun day as I went to Chicago for a board meeting and then stopped at Eataly to get some steaks and pasta and other sundry items, before heading home.  When I got back to Elkhart, I stopped at the local wine store and found a nice bottle of 2010 L'Ecole No. 41 Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon which I decided to open with dinner tonight.  So let's see how this one tastes!

The wine is a lovely deep, inky indigo, just what you'd expect from a nice Cabernet.  The nose is full of ripe aromas of blackberry and plum, over some earthy notes of leather.  The taste is a rush of cherry cola along with some floral notes which transition nicely to some earthy mineral notes as well as tobacco leaf midpalate.  The finish is quite nice, with robust tannins lending nice structure to the long, smooth and velvety dry finish.

Overall, I would rate this wine a solid 8.5, as it's just a very pleasant drinking Cabernet.  This wine would be ideal with a number of the steaks and chops I bought today, but tonight I am enjoying this wine with a classic Pacific Northwest dinner of cedar planked steelhead along with some couscous and steamed broccoli and cauliflower.  Cabernet just always seems right with a nice piece of salmon, cheers!