Our Tradition Continues....Part Two....

Well if it were for the last game of the season, the Christmas eve Cowboy vs Eagle Football game might have totally depressed me. Dallas was pretty much shutout by the Eagles less a blocked punt and junk touchdown in late game garbage time. Not to mention Tony Romo was pulled by the coach after bruising his hand. However, since that is not the case, I can take solace in the fact that next week equals win and we're in playoff game with the Giants. Forget the fact that we just got beat by the Giants two weeks ago, and Romo could be hurt...this is the playoffs and anything can happen.

However, most of you aren't here to see me talk about football. You want to hear how the rest of our Christmas eve dinner went, and of course about the next Chateau O'Brien Wine we paired with dinner.

The dinner preparation started with decanting our wine choice. We chose the Chateau O'Brien 2007 Vitner's Reserve. It is blend of 48% Cab Sav, 20% Cab Franc, 20% Tannat, and 12% Petite Verdot. As most real VA wine drinkers know, 2007 was a great year for red wine in VA. The summer was long, hot, and dry and continued that way right through the harvest season. Of course, we chose a big red wine because we are breaking away from tradition tonight and having steaks to celebrate our Christmas Eve. As you can see below, my wife took the boneless ribeye steak I had picked yesterday and marinaded them.

Along with the great wines above, my wife made wedge salad with homemade bleu cheese dressing made with Rogue River Blue Cheese(take minute to stop and read about this very special blue cheese...mmmm...mmm...good), and fancy bacon bits crumbled on top. Additionally, she made cooked chard with a lemon and parmesan. The completed plates were almost too good to be true.

Dinner was set on our christmas table, with candles taboot. We had a great conversation that included an intimate discussion on the wine. We agreed the nose of the wine was filled with tomato sauce smell, a slight burn of ripe red fruit. This made us smile as we realized we still had at least one bottle of this awaiting us in the cellar for another occasion.

This wine rounded out the mouth with flavors of ripe red fruit, pepper, leather and earth. It had a well balance tannin structure ensuring it can stand several more years of aging. It lingered long with a hint of mint just on the finish. Overall a great example of VA Red Wine blend, and one that can stand up to any wine around the world.

With dinner served and being enjoyed, Sara and I looked forward to opening the gifts that waited under the tree. Having a taste of the special dessert Sara had prepared to for me, and seeing how it paired with the dessert wine that had been chilling in the fridge. Unfortunately, Gus our little boy cat couldn't wait on the presents either and got a head start. Tune in to part three of this mini-blog series to see what our dessert wine selection was and how it wrapped up our 2011 Christmas eve tradition.