The Return

This entry is so titled as I have been neglecting my poor blog, it has been over two months since the previous post.  I am just too naughty and slack, although there has been a lot going on, so it's not all my fault!  To get moving again I have a really simple recipe that turned out to be a little more special.



Rare Prosciutto Veal

Veal, thin pieces

Prosciutto
Flour, to dust

Olive Oil

Garlic, 2 large cloves
Onion, ½
Salt
Black pepper
White Pepper
Brown Sugar
dash of Cinzano Rosso
Red wine
Sprig of thyme
Parsley

A nice easy but quite delicate dish, it could be served for an everyday meal or when you have guests. The beauty of it being the sauce can be prepared and the meat only takes minutes to cook, hence it's usefulness when guests are around.

Saute the onion and garlic in a little oil and then season with salt and peppers, deglaze with the vermouth and then add a little more oil and the red wine. I add a little sugar to balance the flavour out, a squeeze of lemon or a little balsamic is also useful here too. I throw in the thyme and then reduce the sauce so it's slightly sticky.

Put this pan aside and throw the prosciutto slices in to warm. At this point delicately flour the veal, (which should be thin) and pan fry for about 1 minute or less either side in a very hot pan. The meat needs minimal cooking as it is thin and delicate and will continue to cook even off the heat.

From here arrange the veal to serve and top with the sauce and prosciutto. Garnish with parsley.  What can I say, I think it's old school but great!

You can serve this with a salad, some potatoes, or just use your imagination.  Oh and you have to provide your own view, but it is a nice springtime al fresco dish... 

A Jaunt To The Southern Highlands

So I had a brief little sojourn to the Southern Highlands early last week. Some wine tasting, touring and eating was done, all in all a pleasant way to pass the time. The start wasn't all that auspicious however as after the 1.5hr burn down the freeway from Sydney, we arrived at our first port of call only to find it not open! I was keen to visit St Maur Wines as I had had a few good samples previously. It seems the website and printed material are at odds and they are in fact closed on Monday. Don't make our mistake, go on the weekend (the website is currently not correct)! Next trip I guess I'll just have to drop in, the wines are good though so give them a go.

Chris, with one of the staff out front.

Disappointment still smarting, some debate ensued about where to go next. We also drove past a few places; I blame the driver in these situations, however salvation appeared on the horizon or at least the signposting, in the form of Centennial Vineyards. This is a rather grandly styled establishment along french provençal meets grand château lines. You can dine here as well so this was a definite plus as our late start meant lunch beckoned. Rather an excuse to drink more wine I thought but that's a good thing!

Quite loooong

Looking at the tasting list what strikes you immediately is the number of wines produced. Riesling, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Savignan and Pinot Gris in the whites, then Pinot Noir, Cabernet, Merlot, Shiraz, Tempranillo, Sangiovese and Barbera for reds. I may have missed some as well, anyway these wines are also made into two different ranges for some grapes and I believe they also have Nebbiolo in the ground! When I see this in a single producer wariness creeps in as often a lot of mediocre wines result. I don't know if that comes from the winemakers efforts being spread a bit thin or a lack of focus in the vineyard, but it can be a problem. However I'm prejudicing things a bit for you so it pleases me to say I was pleasantly surprised, there was some good wines in the mix, and some interesting stuff. I still think they try and do to many different things but overall quality was good.

Without giving notes on all the wines there were some highlights: in the whites the Riesling and Chardonnay were good, I was particularly taken by some of the off dry rieslings presented. These wines had lovely balance between the residual sugar and acidity whilst being lovely and aromatic. I would see these as very versatile and food friendly wines. The Rosé style, Sauvignon blanc and Savignan made pleasant if not exceptional quaffers. In the reds Cabernet was the dark horse, perhaps not classically styled, but this wine was intense with fruit concentration and formidable tannin, pretty interesting and atypical. In the other wines the Tempranillo and Barbera are very good wines worth a look. The Pinot was good if not exceptional. I wasn't impressed by either the Shiraz (which had a 5% co-ferment with Viognier) or the Sangiovese.

Upside down tasting plate (uploaded oddly, hmmm)

So the advantage here was the range having something for most tastes; if you are a bit into wine there's interest, if you just like a drink to chat with that's here to. Overall the wines can't have been too bad as we decamped to the dining room...

Faux Château was the term I jokingly ascribed to the décor and styling, maybe when I make some wine that's what I'll label it! It all depends if you like this sort of thing in your interior decorating; for myself I find it treads a line a little close to tacky, not bad just not me. Each to their own I suppose.

Lovely Asparagus spears and Pork belly in the background

The food itself was very pleasant and well executed. Sourdough was a great start along with a shot of pumpkin and ginger soup. I enjoyed some Oysters and then the tasting plate with a glass of Chardonnay and then some of the Tempranillo. The plate had a lovely terrine of pork, cauliflower soup shot, beans and peas with feta, oyster, chicken sausage, salt cod croquette. Quite a mix but very tasty, except for the sausage which was rather beige in flavour. My other quibble was that it needed some of the lovely bread to go with it, still nice. Serving the tasting plate and oysters on bits of slate was a nice textural effect, if a little contrived. I also had images of the slate being frisbeed away after use (given the cost of slate I'm sure it goes in the dish washer)!

The Tempranillo was quite interesting as I always find this wine a bit of a shape shifter in the glass. It has really nice lighter cherry and rose characters on the nose, but then you get lovely whiffs of funk and meatiness. Sweet fruit and hints of citrus also follow on the palate and the acidity keeps it taut. Nice and light but with quirks so a nice lunch wine.

Around the table we also had a rolled roasted Loin of chicken, Pork belly and a lovely side of fresh asparagus. Yum!

Faux Chateau courtyard...

Overall then a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours and it's always nice to have some of the wine just tasted in a real world setting, with a meal. This gives you more of a sense of what the wine is really like, just like people...

The Art Of Simple Things

I have really neglected the blog of late, which is poor not least because I keep thinking about it rather than just doing a post. So to get things back on track I thought a post about some of the simplest of dishes and foods. Quite often when you are into food or wine it all seems to get complicated pretty quickly, when in fact I'd be amazed if even the most dedicated gourmet doesn't return to the basic and even most rough and ready of dishes. Sometimes it's just what you want more than anything else in the world.

Soft boiled, a few extras but pretty basic... 

For myself one of these is a nice poached or soft boiled egg on toast; not flash, easy to make and a few additions and variations are possible. Winner.

Cold beer with a Salt & Vinegar chip, how could you go wrong.

Even in the world of wine let me disappoint by saying you can do worse than a crisp dry white, assuming that it is of course a crisp, dry white and not some sweet and flabby pretender.

Others will have their simple favourites and friendly standbys that I'd love to know about. You do however get an idea of the variety these snacks provide from more elaborate fare. Food is so contextual anyway so the right thing at the right time crucial, sometimes even magic, the 2am kebab, or some oysters by the water. Nothing else is needed as time and place is captured.

Just what was required whilst waiting for a delayed flight!

So... Some Wine?

Tallarook Shiraz Viognier 2004, Victoria

This producer is I fear defunct.  Rather a sad outcome as I reckon they made some nice wines, not for everyone, but a bit more than interesting and rather enjoyable.

The pliers add to the rustic nature of the photo,
just like my messy kitchen.

Fading ruby to look at, this smells like dried herbs and flowers, with, violet? over mineral earth. The palate follows through with more herb, leather and dry earth, but the fruit is suprising with it's bright rasberry lolly and cherry character. Open for an hour or so classic shiraz fruit and spice show through. From here stem and leaf chime in and this producer always builds over an acid/tannin backbone, oak is subtle but nicely present. This all carries the wine and imbues structure and length. 90.

A bit of an old world pretender, I'd be intrigued to see this next to a couple of examples from the Rhone. Overall this is tight, but opens with a bit of time, it may also be a bit over age, but again this is gracefully so and I really like the faded primary characters yielding to other funk and complexity.  Like many good wines, the fruit comes up once the bottle is open for a little while.  The other point to mention is the deft handling of the Viognier, some of the previous editions of the wine have used Marsanne to the same end; the element to like here is that it is intergrated with such class.  The only hint to it's presence is the slight floral edge and ephemeral dried apricot note.  So many of these wines are so overladen with the viognier that they taste like apricots and flowers, which if the shiraz is good does not compliment, but rather overtakes.  As they say less is more right? 

And So To Dessert

Pear With Figs In Red Wine


A dessert done many times, this edition has a few tweaks I enjoy to give it a little more zing. I always like playing with elements typically used at the opposite end of the flavour spectrum; the chilli in this instance would more often be seen in a savoury offering, however here the very small amount used enhances the flavour and lifts the dish as a whole. Dark chocolate and chilli are in my book a rather classic combination anyway.

I must apologise for the terrible photo/plating,
time was short however you get the idea...

Ingredients

Pears, peeled*
Dried Figs, 2 per pear

1 bottle Red wine
Star Anise, 1 head
Cinnamon, 1 stick
Cardamom, 1 pod
Chilli (small sliver)
Dark Chocolate, 50g finely ground
Brown Sugar, taste

Double Cream

*I tend to leave the cores and stems in the pear. I like the aesthetics of the pear on the plate like this and it all holds together better. The purists would say there is little worse than biting into a lovely pear and getting core or seed. That seems a bit silly to me when you know it will be there, decide for yourself and prepare accordingly...

Prepare the pears and set in a saucepan so they fit snugly, this means they wont move around unless you want to adjust them, thus select a pan size accordingly. Put the figs in as well and throw all the spices in. Pour the wine over the top, they should be covered by about ½ to ¾, more is probably better. Poach gently for around 45 minutes, here long and slow is good. Set the pears and figs aside when done and retain the liquid.

The wine and spice can then be reduced by half and sugar added. I have not put a measure here as it depends how sweet the wine and your taste, you will need to balance it to the spice. Strain the liquid and then slowly combine the chocolate through the sauce.

Pour the sauce over the plated pear and figs, serving with cream.

A Drink Perhaps?

Most things in life, even the supposed minutiae and extras like writing a blog, require discipline.  I could say that my various other life strands intervened, but this would negate the fact that I should have just made and set aside time to post and create material.

So at 11:09 in the morning I'll get the ball rolling once more with a wine review from the back catalogue.  Who knows, maybe it will roll through to something else.  The review is published as is; by way of context it was a response to a review of the wine by Cambell Mattinson on The WineFront.


2004 Longview Nebbiolo (tasted May 2009) Adelaide Hills, South Australia.

Well I read this review with interest as I acquired a case of this a while back. I tried a bottle or two but never got round to writing a comment, and thought I’d like to as Nebbiolo intrigues me. I mean when I poured a bit out you look at the wine and have a first whiff, c’mon you say, is that it!

Desperately light is generous when describing the colour and the nose wasn’t giving anything away. Sat it for a bit and things unfold. Is one of the problems with this grape the impact the colour has before tasting? Your thinking thin if your not careful before you start.  Anyway after breathing the wine thickens out; the nose is tarry, resinous and quite intense along with some more delicate herbs, “rose petals” lol. The palate is concentrated, but the fruit restrained, with darker flavours, cherry? as well as the raspberry, hint of grass and a bit of boiled lolly on the end. (I feel like an idiot when I write a tasting note) Tannins are dry, grippy and long, but I quite enjoy that and it pulls it all together balancing out the slight alcohol hit, but as you say I don’t think its a problem. I think I’ll pour another.

89

......

I was interested to read something like this from a while back as it's intriguing how ones writing evolves and stays the same.  I still have some of this wine so it should be educational to try it now or in the near future and see how the wine is travelling.  Nebbiolo is a variety I really like, it's pretty interesting and here in Aus and we are now making a few that are decent drops.  If you like it, worthwhile examples locally are coming from Pizzini and S.C Pannell amongst others.  Of course there are many others and I really urge everyone to give it ago, it's certainly something different.  A quirk perhaps, but the wine I drank that introduced me to Nebbiolo was a 2001 bottle from the Granite Belt in Queensland.  It was a most lovely wine and one of the best examples I can recall, even allowing for those heady days of first love!

The wine (generally) also benefits greatly from bottle age, possibly not on the scale of the benchmark Barolos, but it can be a little austere as a youngster.  I'm expecting this wine to be at a bit of a peak now.

I'm also left to ponder the relative value of stuff by this wine because I picked up a case of 04 and a case of 05 for less than $200.  From that perspective it's some of the best wine and value for money buys I've ever encountered.  In the negative I don't think the producer benefited greatly from my auction win.  Enough of that though, here's to good wine, winemaking and drinking! 

*Not the original label art for the vintage, but this 2007 example is exquisite.  Thankyou to Longview Vineyard for the image.

For Everyman

Over done, error laden, we all have exploits in the kitchen that we are shamed by.  There are other times though where I'm sure fate and chance or whatever you like to call it have been kind.  Even with the acquisition of technical skills I've been saved by fortune, so I thought I'd create a bit of a post taking the piss out of food, showing some of the "unexpected" highlights

Prompting me to this was also some cooking I did that made me ponder what's fashionable, and by default what's considered passe.  How do I put this?  I like to try new things.  I don't feel bound by some ill defined tradition.  Sometimes I fancy myself the best of some narcissist stylists...  Yeah right, who cares!  By way of confession:

Sometimes I like overcooked meat, and this T Bone was F*&k Off good, cooked for 45 mins+ due to a malfunction of the bbq.

Like, yeah!

I've been known to drink excessive amounts of cheap beer and wine. (No one remembered to get a photo)

3am is the best time to demonstrate your kitchen skills.   

What this actually went into I'm unsure, it is believed to be the first stage
of a toasted omlette sandwich.  Unfortunately again, memories are
hazy amongst those who were present...

I take food and wine seriously, it's the best of fun, just look at this next label! To close, a lot of rubbish is written and I may play my small part in this but really a sense of humour and self deprecation must be retained at all times. 

Thanks to Jamie Goode's wine blog for the photo.  d'Arenberg have excelled themselves.

The Old And The New

Finally I got round to writing up a few wine notes, seriously you have to watch it, else you're surrounded by small scraps of paper with illegibly scrawled adjectives.  Happily for now crisis has been averted, or atleast stalled for a while.  I've popped these up together as one spurred me to tidy up the notes and both of these made me think about things a bit.  Anyhow make of it what you will and I hope it's slightly less bland than some esoteric naked tasting notes.

These two bottles are worlds apart, literally, but I think that's good in both the drinking and in terms of discussion.  Depending on what part of the world you source most of your wine familiarity with either locales will vary accordingly, though each region hardly needs an introduction.  The Gigondas appellation is in the southern Rhone region of France and the Tyrrell's comes from the Hunter Valley in Australia. 

Domaine De Longue Toque Gigondas 2008

Hailing from the Rhone, the wine is a GSM blend though I'm unsure of the exact breakdown of the various components.  Deep ruby purple hue.  Tight perfumed nose with hints of rose, spice, red fruit and meatiness, also a vegetal and flinty mineral note.  Firm in the mouth, but with some generosity, there’s red fruit and herbal note of rosemary to accompany the initial features.  A hint of violet, then flintiness comes through towards the back of the palate with firm but svelte tannins which frame the wine nicely.  Medium bodied, savoury with some persistence, interesting and structured.  89-90.

Tyrrell’s Vat 11 Shiraz  1995 Hunter Valley NSW

 On opening a little flat, smelt like old shiraz (well duh!) but it came alive after being open for an hour or so.  The intensity surprised me, lovely ripe fruit and strength came through over the elegant aged characteristics of dusty shiraz spice with straw, leather and earth.  The overwhelming thing in the mouth was how blended and harmonious all these features were along with the tannins, oak and acidity of the wine; the complexity was pleasantly challenging. To elaborate, all the features were nice, but you wouldn’t say for example there was a distinct red or dark fruit component such as blackberry and raspberry, rather they were there and so subtly integrated that you were grappling in your mind (in the best possible way, struggling!) to identify and separate different elements, rather like in a fine perfume.  Rich texture in the mouth and tasty savoury qualities with fine but present tannin and acidity driving the tremendous length.  Fine stuff in the bottle and pretty classic Hunter Valley.  I didn't want to score it. 

The exciting thing about a wine like the Tyrrell's is how ephemeral an experience it can be.  One moment not much is happening and then the wine blossoms, delivering a moment in time and beauty as a heady flash, but then gone just as rapidly.    



 These two wines also got me thinking about wine and the differences between places and approaches to vinification.  Both of these wines are pretty high quality, but I suppose my next point is looking at the lower end of the market for the obvious differences these days.  The Rhone wine, whilst still having fruit presence is enjoyable for it's secondary characteristics being more to the fore than similar Australian wines.  While I think there's a lot of cross pollination and changes in winemaking the world over, this is indicative of one of the main differences in appoach between Australian and Old world wines.  Many Australian wines are driven by primary fruit and often fresh and bright, but perhaps lacking the savoury quality aimed for in the french example.  Let me be clear I'm not saying one is inherently better than the other or that either place confound what I've just said and produce an opposite sort of wine to the stereotype I've mentioned.  If only it were that simple, but I do rather like the fact that there is this stylistic difference and obviously individuals enjoy different wines just as different occasions and situation demand diverse wine styles.  The contradictory factor to this as well is at the higher end of the market here in Australia, (I think) now having surpassed much of the world market in the way we have the complexity, but with the beautiful fruit quality integrated.  Simultaneously there has been a move to a less austere style from the French, so perhaps we're all learning from each other.

Of course I feel slightly silly writing all of that because to me it would seem pretty obvious that, stylistic considerations aside, you want both qualities of fruit and secondary characteristics in your wine.  The Tyrrell's really embodied that for me and set off that little rant... 

La Dolce Vita

Sweet Orange Cake

Cakes and sweet baking are not something I do all that often, indeed this may in fact be the first post in that genre.  Rectifying that imbalance I thought I might put this recipe up.  Originally coming from a newspaper clipping, my mother raves about this recipe and makes it often; I’d be fibbing if I told you I wasn’t a convert! 

Apart from being a deliciously moist cake it has a few points which make it a good one to have in the repertoire; very easy to make, particularly if you have a food processor, versatile enough to serve with coffee or as a dessert, also is gluten free.  The gluten free part is also one of the strengths even if you can eat it. The absence of gluten makes such a delicate recipe!  Having friends and family who are intolerant and ceoliac, it’s great to have wonderful recipes to share with them.

No doubt the recipe owes more than a little to the masters of sweet aromatic delicacies in the middle east,  I actually added a tiny tweak to the recipe in that vein this first time I made it.  I have a few further suggestions for variations, but to the recipe…

Ingredients

CAKE

Roughly shot in a hurry, but you get the idea, YUM!

2 oranges, washed

250g slivered almonds

8 dried Apricots, chopped

1 cup caster sugar

5 eggs

1 tsp baking powder

SYRUP

1 orange

½ cup caster sugar

A few drops of rose water essence

Preheat the oven to 150 C.  Put the oranges in a freezer bag loosely sealed and microwave on high for 12 minutes, I’d also pop that in a bowl to avoid leaks! Set them aside for a few minutes to cool.  Grease a 22cm round cake tin and line it with baking paper.  This cake is a big softy so make sure you line with the paper or getting it out may be a hard ask!  Open the oranges up and get any seeds out, also remove any stem remnants.  Pulse the almonds a few times in the food processor to roughly chop, throw in the torn apart whole oranges and apricots and give these a whizz to finely chop and combine.  Caster sugar can be added now and mixed through, finally add the eggs and baking powder and mix for 10-20 secs to combine.  Pour out into the baking tin and bake for 1hr, or until deep golden brown and a skewer comes out cleanly.

For the syrup, take the zest off then juice the orange, combine these and add the sugar in a saucepan, stir vigorously, bring it to the boil and then simmer for 10 minutes without stirring.  Take it off the heat and let it cool down.  My tweak from the original was to add the rosewater essence once the syrup was cool, I think it lifts the citrus aroma and flavour and adds such a lovely note to the cake.  

Now at this point the original recipe says to pour over the syrup at serving with cream, ice cream, thick yogurt etc.  This is absolutely fine, however (thanks again mum!) I think the cake is even better if you pour over the still warm syrup and leave it to soak into the cake, and it gets better over a day or two.  Obviously it can still be served with ice cream etc.

As for other variations in the recipe, think about dried figs (possibly soaked in liqueur of some sort) with or instead of the apricots, a little cinnamon in cake or syrup, nutmeg and possibly slivered pistachios over the top with the syrup. Mmm!    

photo of a photo aka "serving suggeston" thanks to the Daily Telegraph.

Pour Yourself A Glass

Lowe Reserve Shiraz 2006, Mudgee NSW



Pulled from an overnight holiday in the fridge



Interesting little wine this, and should develop over time.  It’s really the antithesis of the big aussie Shiraz that many may be familiar with, which is no bad thing.  In terms of the winemaking process, a third of the fruit was wild fermented; the rest was inoculated with a Rhone yeast and whole bunch fermented.  The wine was matured in both old and new French oak and is 100% organic.  Of course the main point here is how has this shaped the wine?  With some wines, for all the label babble you don’t really get much of it happening in the wine.  Happily this wine bucks that trend.

So a bit of a note…

Bright ruby red colour with a similarly bright nose, predominantly red fruit initially, then a hint of flowers and minerality, followed by a touch of violet and plum.  Palate has the red fruit along with some shiraz spice and funk, darker notes peek through temptingly.  Tannins provide shape and backbone, being firm but supple they finish this nicely.  Well structured.  90.

I tried this with food and then again the next day when I wrote an actual note about it.  Certainly this will age well and this would bring out further dimensions in the wine, perhaps along the” darker notes” which are hiding a little bit.  On opening it really is quite lean and bright, I‘d say you could mix this up with a Cotes du Rhone or similar GSM style wine if you tasted this blind.  The next day though the wine was overall darker and more “shiraz” if that makes sense; the floral had dissipated, more black fruit was present and there was more of a classic shiraz nose.  It suggests to me a wine which would really be great in five or even ten years.

***A little update, I left the wine in the fridge and tried it again 3-4 days after opening, only about a third left in the bottle.  Even better, and it made me think my 90 was stingy, seriously!  Thus I'm tempted to go 92+  Sometimes it's nice to be a little off the mark.  Comments are along the lines of the 2nd day tasting, things really opened up even more, multi dimensioned, depth and really integrated.

A high quality producer, well worth checking out so have a look Lowe Family Wine   

  

Countryside Adventures

So here's another post coming to you from the Mid North Coast of New South Wales; I was charged with minding the dog for a few days as others embarked on a few side trips and this is a dish I cooked up to amuse myself and the dog.  He enjoyed it in rather more of a raw form it must be said!  I like this style of cooking the meat and have made this quite a few times with variations in the marinade.  This edition, I guess because of the Sumac, preserved lemon and general spice profile, takes some inspiration from North Africa via the South of Italy.  Quite Australian in it’s multicultural mixture of influences.  You can also use a dash of sweet vermouth in a marinade as variation.   


 

Preserved Grapefruit, an in house product,
but as you won't find that at the shops I suggest lemon!

Seared Kangaroo Fillets



Kangaroo Fillet (roughly two medium sized pieces per person)

Marinade

Garlic, 2 large cloves crushed and diced

Olive Oil, 50ml

White wine, 50 ml

Balsamic Vinegar, 1 dash

Sumac, large tsp

The Kangaroo, Sizzling along in the pan, prior to the oven

Dash of finely diced chilli

Lemon thyme, 3-4 sprigs

Bay leaves, 2 fresh

Preserved lemon, 2-3 pieces, finely sliced

Cumin, ½ tsp

Cardamom. A pinch

 Salt

Black Pepper

White Pepper

Throw all the marinade ingredients together and give it a good mix.  To this, add the kangaroo and make sure all the meat has a good covering of the liquid.  This can all be prepared the day before if you want, or on the day you cook it.  If you do it earlier, cover and throw it in the fridge but give the meat a turn every now and then.  Make sure you get it out of the fridge to get it up to room temperature prior to cooking.  Prepared a few hours before cooking it can just be left out of the fridge, but again give it a mix and stir occasionally.

To cook, remove the meat from the marinade and get rid of any big lumps of garlic, herb etc from the meat.  Reserve the marinade and set an oven to 220C, also heat a pan with a little oil until very hot.  Sear the meat until coloured and browned on all sides.  This might be 30 seconds or so per side, but use your judgement.  Place the meat into a baking dish and pour over the marinade.  Cook in the oven for 5-10 minutes.  The aim is to keep the meat rare in the middle but combine the lovely flavours of the marinade, so don’t overdo it!  If you do like the meat a little more well done, bake for 5-10 minutes longer but at about 180 C.  (Though I think  Kangaroo is at it’s best rare to medium rare!)

Give the meat a rest under foil for 10-15 minutes then serve with a Salad or your favourite roasted vegetables.  Here I’ve done some oven roasted potatoes and a tomato, avocado and cucumber salad.    We enjoyed this with a delicate and lighter Cabernet, but a rich and spicy Shiraz or the classic game companion of a Pinot would also work.