Double Shot of Red (Italy / California)
15 Jan 2015- Details
- Category: Uncorked Tonight
(November 22, 2014) ... Usually I talk about going over to my brother's place for dinner, but this time we had him and his family over ... pot roast, potatoes and our first stab at Yorkshire pudding ... Sounds like a simple menu and these are sometimes the hardest to pair wines with, so I went with the old standards: big reds. Kicking things off with an Italian wine from the Abruzzo region, a Caldora 2008 Yume, a wine made from the Montepulciano grape. I remember recently tasting the 2009 which was big round and full bodied ... The '08 was a little more on the elegant side, it was a wine that did not hit you over the head but instead revealed itself in stages. Aromas of plum, blackberry, cherry and cocoa were followed on the palate by cassis, plum cocoa and coffee. This one showed more elegance than the bruiser that is/was the '09. Those who read my reviews regularly will know my brother is into the big wines (so the oh-nine Yume would have been right up his alley) ... for him I popped the cork on a 
Ca'Momi 2011 Cabernet Sauvignon from the Napa Valley, and he was not disappointed: vanilla and ripe cherry, with hints of cinnamon and some milk chocolate. This was the rich, full wine I knew he'd love and on the finish it put out lingers of black cherry, chocolate, and mocha-latte. Can you say decadent? I knew you could ... And it was.
Starting with a Montes Alpha 2011 Cabernet Sauvignon: a very appealing blackberry, chocolate, mint, cassis, and black cherry all greet the nose; palate shows great structure and body as cassis, blackberry and spice co-mingle with touches of pepper, cocoa and mint followed up with a good dose of tannins. This wine still has a good life ahead of it. In the same part of the cellar I found another Montes wine, another Cabernet Sauvignon, this time the Montes 2011 Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon. This wine was a little more basic with aromas of chocolate-mint and blackberry; and flavors of mint, blackberry, and chocolate. Very tasty and rich of flavour with a nice smooth mid-palate to finish. Both wines were quite nice but the Alpha showed its complexity and pedigree.
