We had a nice Labor Day weekend. Nancy’s mom came to visit so we invited a couple of friends over for a BBQ. I grilled some flank steak and Nancy made some chimichurri sauce for it. She also made corn pudding and a salad with our home grown tomatoes. Everybody enjoyed the meal very much. To accompany our meal we had two wines, a 2003 Hewitt Cabernet Sauvignon from Rutherford in the Napa Valley and a 2007 Burrell School Zinfandel – Syrah (they call it their High School Sweethearts) where the grapes were from Amador and Santa Clara counties. The winery is located in the Santa Cruz mountains.
The Hewitt was a very dark almost inky ruby with a big nose of dark fruit (plums and berries). Nancy also found some cedar in the nose. The wine was very tannic but balanced with good acid and had a light body with a lot of dark fruit and a moderately long finish. Again, Nancy also picked up a burst of cedar, which she loves, in the flavor. With the meal the tannins were much more civilized and the wine matched the flank steak well.
The Burrell School was also a dark ruby color with a nice nose of dark fruit and vanilla. The flavor consisted of dark fruit, spice and vanilla. There was also a little heat on the back end probably from the alcohol (14.8%). The wine was nicely balanced with mild tannins and a long finish. The Burrel Schooll also went very nicely with the flank steak so you could easily alternate between drinking the two wines as you were eating.
