I had two fantastic reds with a fantastic meal recently. It’s amazing how different these wines were, but both worked beautifully with food.

The meal: Beef tenderloin with an Ancho chile/coffee/cocoa rub and butternut squash risotto

The wines: 2004 Jasmin Cote-Rotie and a 1996 Dal Forno Romano Valpolicella

The Jasmin had been decanted for about five hours and was the picture of elegance and beauty of 2004 Rhones (both North and South). It’s amazing, when I think Cote-Rotie I think big, bold, tannic, but this one was ready to go. Fantastic.

The Dal Forno was really exciting because of it’s age and rarity. There is definitely some dried-grape action in there; it was rich, rich, rich. California wine people would go ga-ga for this. But it was also balanced and had nice acidity. A very impressive and memorable wine; drinking perfectly now. Thank god it wasn’t corked! The consensus was if the Valpo was this rich, what would a Dal Forno Amarone be like? A freakin’ monster!

(Also have to give props to the apple/cranberry cobbler with caramel ice cream. I fucking love cobbler!)