Substance is a big deal....

....Wines of Substance, that is.

Doug performed a wedding this weekend for some friends of ours, & they gave us a wonderful thank you gift.  Not only did they give us a gift card to Veritas (if you recall, one of our favorite haunts), but they also had the owner pick out a bottle of wine for us. 

I'm happy to report that he knows us quite well.

He chose the 2009 Wines of Substance Cabernet Franc from Washington.  You see, he knows.

Well-made Cab Franc, plainly stated, rocks.  It's one of my favorite varietals.  This surprised the hell out of a wine dude from Bordeaux that we had brunch with this past Sunday.  That statement alone makes me so incredibly cool.  All of my coolness aside...while Cab Franc is one of the 5 red Bordeaux varietals, it's mostly used for blending in that region.  Really, it's only a major player on its own in the Loire Valley, where the wine is called Chinon after one of the town the vines are grown in. 

Ah, but that's just France.

Doug & I decided to open the Wines of Substance tonight, & WOW.   The nose was heavenly & quite complex.  I picked up some herbal notes like mint - actually, more like a mint tea - & dried cherries.  Maybe some rosemary & some other green stuff.  Not too much, but just enough.  Once I tasted it, I got some raspberry, plum & something like cherry cough drops...the really good ones.  Killer finish - if I timed it, I think it would be well over 30 seconds, but I'm not that big of a dork. I could go on & on, but I'll spare you.  There's no need to get super-technical.  One, I really can't get super technical; two, that gets boring; & three, I want to focus on one of my new favorite bottles.

Cheers!