This little guy doesn’t have a guilty bone in his body. Neither should you. Every Wednesday (though it could be Tuesday or Thursday) I will write-up a wine that I feel delivers good value for drinking in the middle of the week. Aside from quality, my only other criteria is price. To start, less than $15, but ideally less than $10, for a 750 ml bottle.
I will also add any recipes that I paired with the wine. I hope to leave you with a recipe that you can use to match up with a wine of your choice if you can’t locate the one I recommend.
No-Guilt Wednesday is not about compromising on quality. It’s all about drinking good wine that does not break the bank, eating good food and of course, it’s about sharing with the ones you love.
Buehler offers three different Napa Cabs. Their top two Cabs are the Papa’s Knoll Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon (300 cases– $45 from the winery) with the grey and white label with maroon and gold banners. The second is the Napa Valley Estate Cabernet Sauvignon (1,800 cases– $36 from the winery) with a grey and white label with gold banner.
This week’s wine is not one of those two. This is the more humble Napa Cabernet (15,000 cases– $25 from the winery)– a wine with 30% Cabernet from the estate but 70% from other parts of Napa– with a green and white label and gold banner. No matter, this is still a wine worth coveting. It pays to go green. But at this price, what is this doing on No-Guilt Wednesday?
Buehler Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2008 ($15). Normally this is available for $20 or more. But my wine guys offered me a good deal on this at just a few pennies below $15. How could I say no? As I started to drink this, I felt compelled to sip and then gulp this beauty. It was just drinkably good. Then I stopped myself and thought, “What the hell is going on?” Hints of cocoa on the nose. A healthy respect, but not deference to the fruit. Yes, black fruit– insistent black plum, black cherry and cassis. The wine has an herbal quality that straddles between the fruit and the acidity and ever so tenuously chalky tannins. I felt this wine even had a touch of wood mushroom mutating kaleidescope-like into maduro tobacco on the longish finish. This is a wine that I could sip all night long. I did. I will again. If you can get this for $20– jump on it. If you can get it for $15, buy a case and a half. Just remember to ease up on the gulping and sip this beauty– if you can. Rated ***
Ms. R and I were celebrating one of life’s anniversaries– OK my birthday. I have been thinking of mushrooms all week– besides wine, what else would a Sybarite be thinking of this time of year? She wanted to go out to lunch. It was pouring outside. I preferred to stay indoors with the ingredients in ye olde larder. Herewith the…
Simple Mushroom Crostini
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons, EVOO
- 16 oz. Crimini and/or mixed mushrooms – chopped
- 1/2 of medium red onion finely chopped
- 2 large cloves, garlic – finely minced
- 1/4 cup Amontillado
- 4 tbsps. parsley – finely chopped
- salt and pepper to taste
- Rolls, sliced and toasted on top only
Method
- Place olive oil in large saute pan over medium heat
- Add red onion and cook for 1 minute
- Add garlic and cook with onions until onions are translucent
- Turn up heat to medium-high and add mushrooms stir to incorporate with coat with oil/garlic mixture
- Sprinkle with salt and fresh ground black pepper and taste for seasoning
- Add Amontillado and cook until liquid is evaporated
- Add 3 tbsps. chopped parsley
- While mushrooms broil bread in a toaster oven until golden brown on top but still soft on the bottom
- Spoon mushrooms onto toast
- Top with remaining parsley for garnish, if desired
© Sybarite Sauvage
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