Fried Chicken and Cabernet Sauvignon

One evening out at my in-laws, Matt decided he wanted his dad to make fried chicken so that he could actually learn how to do it himself, as his last few tries have been a bit of a disaster. With that in mind, my mother in-law picked up all the fixings for dinner and invited family friends over, whom we hadn’t seen since September and who hadn’t had the opportunity to see the in-law’s new house.

My mother in-law wanted to have wine with dinner and what she had in the cabinet were 2 bottles of 2001 Franciscan Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon from the Oakville Estate. The wine was 13.5% alcohol by volume and had a real cork closure. I can see from their website that the 2003 runs $28 a bottle and I would venture to guess this one was somewhere in the same neighborhood, though I can’t seem to find it on the internet. I’d venture to guess some wine stores must have it though as I can pretty much guarantee it wasn’t around in the cabinet last time we visited!

On the nose the wine displayed black cherries, plums and raisins, a bit of spice and some oak. In the mouth it was smooth, with a little spice, with flavors of plums, leather and cherries. It is drinking well now and if you have it or buy it I would suggest consuming it fairly soon. Not a great match with dinner, but it would do well with a steak!

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I like Wine. I like Contests.

Therefore, I really like Wine Contests.

In case you hadn’t already seen this one, I wanted to draw your attention to a new contest for free wine, this time being hosted by Russ, the Winehiker. Russ is offering wine prizes to the best reviews of his site, California Wine Hikes, written by other bloggers. The top six will win a prize and the best review will be the recipient of a full case of wine valued at $500.

The contest starts today and runs for 6 months, so you have plenty of time to explore Russ’ website and get to know what he does and how he does it before posting your review!

Russ promises more details today, but for now you can check out his current post on the contest.

Best of luck to everyone!