Varietal: Â 65% Cabernet Sauvignon; 25% Malbec; 7% Merlot; 2% Petit Verdot; 1% Cabernet Franc
Region: Â Alexander Valley – California
Cost: Â $55
Winemaker’s Notes: Â The 2008 Symmetry greets you with a generous bouquet of blackberries, ripe dark plums, sweet spices and pie crust. It opens boldly on the palate with layers of blackberry, cassis, dark chocolate and brown spice. This mouth-filling wine is rich, silky in texture, expansive and quite long on the finish, and manages to be at once harmonious, powerful, and elegant. Intended to be enjoyable on release, Symmetry is destined for years of further evolution in the bottle.
My Review: Â Last September my wife and I took a vacation to San Francisco that included some time in wine country…naturally. Our very first stop was Rodney Strong Vineyards, whom I had spent some time with during the 2011 Wine Bloggers Conference. While we tasted a variety of wines there, we only brought home two with us (since we were flying), a Pinot that’s still on the rack, and the 2008 Symmetry Meritage that we finally opened this past weekend.
The wine was dark in the glass, with hints of purple slashing through it. On the nose I got blackberry and spice for the most part, but as the wine opened up even more between the decanter and the glass, some of the plum started to come through for me. On the mouth I picked up blackberry and dark chocolate notes, with a bit of spice on the finish. We paired the wine with ribeye steak (well I did, my wife had some chimichurri shrimp) that was coated in seasoning and then had a bit of blue cheese melted on top at the very end.
The pairing of the wine and the steak was great. The tender juiciness of the meat was beautifully complimented by the dark flavors of the wine, and it was almost a shame when the steak was gone and I still had wine to drink. Of course, that problem was quickly ignored as I still had wine to enjoy.
It’s not often that I splurge on more expensive wines (see wines over $35-40), but this was definitely one that was worth it. Coming from a state the produces a lot of Meritage blends, I appreciate them when they’re well done, and in this case it very much was done well.
