Back already...

Tonight I got home in time to make dinner (something is wrong when I felt guilty about leaving the hospital after only working 11 hours)! We made spit pea soup with bacon, leeks, parsnips, carrots, parsley, bay leaves, and marjoram. It was yummy. However, it look a long time to cook and we decided we needed a bottle of wine to pass the time. Tonight's bottle is a cabernet from the Finger Lake region in New York. The label says, "A medium bodied dry red that includes both cabernet franc and cabernet sauvignon. Highlighted by aromas of bright berry fruit and hints of black pepper this medium bodied dry red finishes with smooth tannins and subtle oak undertones."

Swedish Hill
Blue waters Cabernet (75% cabernet franc and 25% cabernet sauvignon)
Romulus, New York
not dated
cost: unknown, gift from friend

Reviewer 1: My taste for red wine is not as developed as my taste for white. As you have probably noticed our postings are more often white than not. I just don't enjoy the heavy taste of reds I have tried. This wine is not an exception, it really does not have much flavor except for the aftertaste of alcohol. That being said, I did enjoy three glasses and am not totally trashed. So it must be missing more than just flavor. Despite my lack of enjoyment for reds in general, this did pair well with the split pea soup. I don't think that a white would have done as well. Maybe I am finally realizing that choice of wine, even cheap wine, can improve a meal if done well. I guess we have more to learn and write about in the future.

Reviewer 2:The label on this bottle of wine does much to atract me to it. It has a picture of a dock leading out to an empty stretch of one of the finger lakes and it is called Swedish Hill. It is almost enough to think that they are trying to butter me up by calling it Swedish. At first taste I wasn't too impressed with this wine. In general I don't like Cabernets but I think most of the cabernets I have had have been full bodied and exessively spicey. So although I didn't like it at first taste, this wine has grown on me. it is fairly mild and unoffensive. It at first seemed to have no flavor but know seems to have a fairly tolerable if not mildly pleasent flavor. That being said while I don't dislike this wine, I would rather have a one liter box of Don Simon any night of the week. I drove through Romulus, the town where this wine is made, on my way to and from Ithaca. It was a barely a wide spot in the road. A collection of 5-10 houses and the speed limit was 55 mph right on through town, not necessarily a place where you might expect to find fine wines.