Posts tagged with 'Chateau Montelena'

A Night To Remember

  • Posted on February 5, 2010 at 10:56 pm

The definition of “A perfect night” will differ from person to person.  How many times do you try to line everything up so that you have a perfect night?  You get the kids taken care of, make sure you’re well rested, not having an argument with your significant other, and so on.  You put so much energy into an evening like this, yet, it rarely seems to work out as planned due to unforseen circumstances. 

And then, when you LEAST expect it, one just happens to fall into your lap.  And that is exactly what happened to us. 

We have started up AGAIN our Netflix account so that we have a movie waiting for us should we find ourselves in the mood to watch a movie.  This time it was the movie Bottle Shock.  I know, you have probably seen the movie; most people who enjoy wine have.  We had not, however.  The movie is about a big blind competition between the French wines and California wines back in 1976.  It has been well documented and understood that the French rarely give much credit or respect to wines outside their country.  Back in 1976 it was far worse than it is today. 

The movie follows the story of how the competition came to be and how the results knocked the wine industry, um, well, sideways.  In blind tastings it was a wine from California, Chateau Montelena, that won.

Now, if you EVER watch a movie that has people drinking wine and you enjoy wine it pretty much makes you really want to have a glass of your favorite, yes?  Now make it a movie ABOUT wine and, well, the desire can be overwhelming.  Fortunately for us, we had that taken care of.

Shelley made a wonderful pot roast.  She has a new recipe she’s been using that makes the roast, in her words, fork tender.  Delicious!  We opened a bottle of 2002 Ravenswood Zinfandel, from Sonoma, Californnia, and it paired wonderfully with the roast.  It also paired perfectly with the movie!

Rich notes on the nose of raspberry and cherries made it difficult to concentrate on the movie.  It also took me a long time before I finally touched the glass to my lips to give it a taste.  When I did, it tasted as good as it smelled, full body, not too many tannins, though they were certainly there.  With every bite of the roast I added a small sip of this Zinfandel as a chaser.  Wonderful!

Some wines are easier to drink than others and this was one of those wines.  This particular wine was bottled in May of 2004 and 2,400 cases were produced.  I don’t know how many bottles of this vintage are left out there but if you have a chance to get one I’d recommend it.

I know it would have been better had we opened a wine from Napa instead of Sonoma (and a Chardonnay at that), seeing as how the movie was all about the wine of Napa Valley, but with the roast it seemed apropos to pop the Zin and let ‘er rip, and neither of us regretted that decision.

And so now, here is my prediction for this years Super Bowl.  I know you all have been waiting for it!! 

First of all, I really don’t care who wins.  I would prefer a really good game, one that went down to the wire.  I don’t think many people are giving New Orleans much of a chance because of who is playing quarterback on the other side of the ball.  Yes, Peyton Manning is a very good quarterback.  I didn’t realize he had the arm strength until I saw him throw the ball on a ROPE to one of his recievers in the AFC Championship game.  He is also very smart, like another coach on the field. 

However…..

…..I think I am going to pick the upset (again).  I think New Orleans will surprise people by bucking the Colts in a close one, 34-31.  I think Drew Brees will rally his Saints at the end and score with not much time left on the clock.  The city of New Orleans could, would and should really benefit the Saints winning the Super Bowl.  The Colts and Manning had their time a couple of years ago.  Let’s see the Saints go marching in!

Until next time, bottoms up and thank you SO much for reading!

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