2004 Fess Parker Winery Lot 51 Frontier Red

No, this isn't a joke. The 2004 Fess Parker Winery Lot 51 Frontier Red is from vinyards actually owned and operated by the great Fess Parker, who starred on TV as Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone.

Perhaps this and the Desolation Flats red are attempts to court men who are afraid of wine? The bottles practically beg for grilled beef and casual attire. The owner of the local shop that carries these wines claims it has more to do with other wineries attempting to jump on the Folie à Deux Menage à Trois bandwagon. Mix a few grapes together, make it big and fruit-forward, and slap an irreverent name and label on the bottle. Then sell it for $10 or less.

This is actually Lot 51, despite the Lot 41 link. A combination of six southern French grapes: Syrah, Grenache, Petite Sirah, Mourvèdre, Cinsault and Carignane. Despite what you might think about the Rhône, this is not a mild and sippable wine. Instead, it is a bold and powerful red, dark and tannic with lots of deep fruit flavors. And to top it off, a hot aroma that points to the whopping 15.5% alcohol content.

So it had been a rough day at the end of a long week. For reasons I won't go into, I was in a bad mood. But I had the house to myself, aside from the two trusty dogs. I poured myself a delicious rum punch of my own creation (post to follow?), put some Russian piano music on, and sat in the kitchen reading through old cookbooks. Once the melancholy had dissipated, I made up some tomato soup, a bit of bruschetta, and grilled up a boneless ribeye in the pan. Deglazed the juices with a bit of the above wine, poured the sauce over the steak and bruschetta, and enjoyed a relaxing dinner. A pleasant end to the day.