Estancia Cabernet Sauvignon Paso Robles 2003

Neither one of us remembers how we first heard of Estancia, but we were pleasingly surprised by this one. We opened it last night while sampling some food from a local Italian place we'd never been to but wanted to try. The wine is wonderfully fruity and flowery (in my apparently default wine-tasting style, I created a whole story about flowers soaking up the wind and sun and releasing their rich pollen into the air while we sipped). I've seen some reviewers complain a little bit about the youth of this wine, but we found it pleasing and light.

This is Jennifer, now. I just wanted to chime in to say that I thought this wine was superb for pasta, pizza or a light meal. It has a wonderful, fruity nose and the taste is succulent. Not as big as most cabs I've had, but I'd call it a welcome addition to our cellar.

Francis Coppola 2004 Diamond Claret

On Lee's dad's recommendation, we tried Francis Coppola's Claret last night. Funny enough, we had the bottle for a couple of months, but just never got around to opening it.

It was worth the wait. This is a big wine, very fruity. The nose reminded me of a slightly less intense ruby port, but the nose is deceiving. The fruitiness is a balanced one, and the wine is actually quite dry. We drank it with dinner-- butternut squash ravioli in a peppery tomato sauce--and that was a winning combination. Tonight, we're having lamb chops, and I think that will also do the claret justice.

Highly recommended.

Beer

While this is primarily a wine blog, I thought I'd take a moment to talk about a couple of beers that came around this holiday season. Jenny and I found two in particular that we really liked.

The first is Samuel Adams Winter Lager. This may be our favorite of the winter beers. It has the best all-around flavor, and it's a great beer for hanging out after dinner.

I also really like Anchor Steam's Christmas and New Year Ale. Jenny hasn't tried this one yet, but luckily we have a single bottle left.

We haven't been drinking too much wine lately, as we're still trying to finish off the beer from our latkes and beers party last month. What have others been drinking?

Fonseca Porto Late-Bottled Vintage (2000)

As we move along, I'm getting more and more interested in port. The complexity of flavor in a quality port is nearly unmatched, and this one from Fonseca is just gorgeous. We bought it on a bit of a lark. We've been seeing Fonseca porto at the liquor store for months, but we've been sticking with what we know. Then, needing some port for New Year's Eve, we decided to go in for something a little special.

Fonseca's late-bottled vintage is aged for several years before bottling, and then it's aged just a little bit more. The result is a deep, mature blend of the usual chocolate and berry, but with added depth and some subtle wooded and spiced notes.