Adventure Awaits: Incomparable Cabernet

A recipe created in collaboration with my friend Elsa de Brosses, local Healdsburg chef and mom of two.

Fall is truly Cabernet Sauvignon season! It's cooler, and heavier dishes are appropriate. I love complexity of flavor, that's a real adventure for me. Cab is the drink for that! But you do really need to turn the page on the seasons to fully embrace the craziness that a good Cab can bring to the table. The type of adventure I'm talking about unfurls over the course of a meal and goes a little like this (my words are doomed to fail, however words must sell wine, so here we go): it's all about juxtaposition of opposites and the ludicrous idea of simultaneity. Cab can do it, yes, it can defy all things rational. Absurdity! A puzzle to grapple with for a lifetime, demanding imagination and elasticity of mind. Can you handle it? Cab goes mock sweet from fruit (don't get me wrong, it's a dry wine) and earthy bitter from tannin flavor at the same time. Cab goes high tone with berry aromas and low with spices. Cab goes bright with acidity and dark with drying tannins. Cab goes dizzy with alcohol, and leveling with nourishing minerals. Cab goes in your glass liquid but, um, I chew it between my molars, oh that body! Cab goes whammo with complexity but aaaaah with familiarity of warm embrace. It's berry, herbal, savory, spicy, bitter, bright, earthy, woody, quenching, sombre, gripping, difficult and a relief.