We don't have family nearby and it is always tough to impose on your friends on a school night so we stayed in and celebrated our 26th Anniversary with the kids. Not quite as romantic as our 25th, but we like our own cooking so it wasn't really a hardship.
Freemark Abbey Cabernet Bosché (pronounced: Boh shay) is not a varietal, it is one of California's first vineyard-designated wines. The Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard, owned by the Bosché family, is well-known for producing wines of distinctive character.
Bonus: For all you libbers out there, first woman-owned winery in California.
It's always a special treat to drink a fifteen year old Napa cabernet and this was pretty good. Better, in fact, than the 88 points that Wine Spectator offered back when it first reviewed the wine. The wine is priced today anywhere from $40.00 to $140.00 depending on your shopping skills. It is definitely not a $140.00 wine. Might be a $40.00 wine. As TWC has often intoned, price doesn't nescessarily correlate to pleasure, though I enjoyed this wine very much.
Deep ruby in the glass, the aroma has depth with dark cherry, black currant, blackberry, cassis and dusty leather. On the palate the dark cherry and leather is dominant and quite pleasant with a long finish. The wine drinks younger than it is, which may mean the other two bottles in the cellar will continue to improve.
We paired the Bosché with Prime Filet Mignon grilled over a mesquite fire. Mrs TWC steamed asparagus spears, complemented with her from-scratch hollandaise sauce. Add crispy baked potatoes with sewer cream and chives from the gardens here at the Casa. Did I mention the fresh sourdough baguette?
Extravagant as that sounds, the four of us enjoyed it for about what it would cost for one of us to dine comparably at an upscale eaterie.
Edit: Got a few emails asking how much. The entire meal, not including the wine, was about $40.00. Most of that cost was the Filet Mignon.
As Always,
TWC