Last night we had dinner over at the home of some friends. Our kids are classmates and they love hanging out! I always ask what we can bring, but the answer is usually wine! Knowing we were going to have John's home-made pasta sauce, I decided to bring a bottle of the 2006 Mount Aukum En Fuego to enjoy before dinner and the Van der Vijver Estate 2006 Sangiovese Brunello de Sierra Foothills to enjoy with dinner! What a pair of great wines!
The En Fuego is a fantastic Rhone blend of Grenache 40%, Syrah 32%, Mourvedre 22%, and Petite Sirah 6%. This makes for a fantastic, complex and smooth wine. We enjoyed it with some hearty puff pastry filled with a rich ham and cheese mixture.
The Van der Vijver Estate 2006 Sangiovese Brunello de Sierra Foothills is an awesome pasta wine! Robert has crafted this wine to be like the famed Brunello of Italy, and it definitely was the crowd favorite! John has prepared a rich, hearty meat sauce full of flavor and the wine paired so well! Sangiovese is the grape that the great chiantis are made from , but this wine was not full of tannin, and the acidity really balanced the rich meat sauce nicely! This is a wine you will want to have around for those fall spaghetti dinners!
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