With the arrival of the New Year, everything is seemingly up for scrutiny, contemplation and improvement.   In a rush to leave the holidays behind in the rear view mirror, 2011 sits in the background obscured by a cloud of dust.   While innovation, progress and growth are welcome there is still room for reminiscence.  Perhaps the best form of nostalgia to a wine connoisseur is revisiting older vintages.

Rummaging through my wine collection, periodically I revisit my Cabernet Sauvignon wines to ensure that I am consuming them in a timely manner.   I do not necessarily always try to enjoy them at their peak, but instead find that enjoying a specific vintage either annually or every six months is educational as I learn where a wine is going.   Moreover, it is a great challenge to my palate to determine whether or not I was on the mark when I first sipped the vintage years ago in a tasting room.  For this week, I selected a 2005 vintage.

In Napa Valley, 2005 was a wonderful year for red wine grapes.   While it did not match the perfection of conditions of 2007, 2005 still comes in at a close second when analyzing the past ten harvests. 

As I type, I can hear the anguished cries of frustration from some readers because this means that this week’s wine is not going to be at their local wine shop.  So the vintage is not presently for sale . . . anyone in the “know” knows that you let your Cabernet Sauvignon wines sit, age and develop in the bottle.   The benefit of this week’s article, however, is that  you can affordably find a recent vintage of this week’s featured wine, set it aside and in a couple of years enjoy something similar.

While many wineries rush to bottle and sell their Cabernet Sauvignon wines, if you can muster the patience and skill to set aside and cellar properly this varietal, your bottle aging efforts will reward you.   Not only will your palate be delighted with flavor and unparalleled texture, but your wine cellar will be prepared to weather the future vintages when weather conditions are far from optimal, yields are non-existent and exorbitant prices are affixed to the few bottling that emerge.

This week, selecting a 2005 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon from Sequoia Grove Vineyards (“Sequoia Grove”) is a reliable and easy pick.  Mike Trujillo at Sequoia Grove has long been recognized for his talent with all things Cabernet Sauvignon.   The winery is readily recognized for its talent with the varietal and while many of the special single vineyard varietals are not easily found, the Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon is widely distributed throughout the United States.   Given that the wine is labeled “Napa Valley” this also means that the Cabernet Sauvignon will be sourced from a variety of vineyards in Napa Valley and traditionally will not cellar for ten or twenty years (like single vineyard wines sometimes can).    As such, it is a little bit longer than six years post-bottling and given the arrival of the new year, it is a nice time to inquire as to how this vintage is “doing” in the bottle.

The wine meets the glass, presenting rich dark garnet color.  A bouquet emerges which is distinguishingly smoky and accompanied by aromatic hints of cedar chips.   When a Cabernet Sauvignon ages, the fruit will often thin.   However, the oak will always remain.   This is important to remember when trying to age and cellar a Cabernet Sauvignon.  If the winemaker is talented, the right amount of oak exposure will occur during the winemaking so that if you cellar the wine, you will not find seven years down the road nothing but oak.

In the mouth, the texture of the wine is beginning to turn velvety such that it touches the lips and mouth softly with an undeniable caress.  While initially the fruit is slightly acidic, it turns juicy quickly like freshly picked blackberries.   With a single sip, your mouth salivates.

Notes of vanilla come forth with a finishing swallow of blueberry at the end.  The anise has mellowed with almost a subtle caramelized roasted fennel added to the wine in exchange.

The 2005 Sequoia Grove Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon is a wine that reminds you of those friends that we all have:  those who love a good cigar.   This is their sipping wine, the seductress that would accompany the cigar.

For the rest of us who do not smoke, this wine is recognizably enjoyed alone and its food pairings range from a perfectly prepared filet mignon to a good expensive cheese.   Taking the concept of steak and cheese together, this week’s menu creatively hosts:

• Steak Spanakopita Cigars with Caramelized Vidalia Onions

Traditionally, Spanakopita are those delicious phyllo dough triangles stuffed with spinach, garlic, feta and onion.   This pairing takes a favorite appetizer and upgrades it with finely chopped steak (flash sautéed in worchestershire and seasoning salt), sautéed minced Vidalia onions and a mixture of Point Reyes Farmstead Bleu Cheese and gorgonzola.

This really is a sinful combination and one that Jan Littlefield of The Rocky Mountain Vine column of this site helped me brainstorm.  Savory tidbits of flash seared steak easily make any dish and further, any chef using Point Reyes Farmstead Bleu Cheese adds depth and richness that is unparalleled.  Phyllo dough is used as opposed to puff pastry because it is not as heavy.   Puff pastry would weight down with the cheese, butter and beef.  Similarly, since the tannins are refined in the wine due to aging, the wine is better suited to pair with phyllo dough.  It simply does not need the additional fat.

Pairing the wine with the food is introducing richness destined for one another.  The rich flavors of the food encourage the wine’s fruit to awaken from an aged slumber and race forward.  The wine’s round supple berry fruit embraces the spinach, steak and ultra-creamy nature of the cheese.   Each sip is like the commencement of a love story.  The wine’s sensuality is unlike anything you will experience in a tasting room or buying a bottle for impetuous consumption from your local wine merchant.   Similarly, a thoughtful pairing such as this can take a meal from good to exquisite no matter how simply served.

While you may enjoy a good glass of Cabernet Sauvignon, exercise discipline this year and factor into your wine budget to purchase an extra bottle of your favorite vintage.   If you adhere to a resolution to set the bottle aside, this varietal will strut its stuff and show you what it and time in a bottle can accomplish.