We made a slow cooked version of Bolognese sauce yesterday. It is simple recipe that Jenise posted many years ago on the Food Lovers Page, and it has become a staple at our house. Just ground veal, onions, stock, wine, garlic, bay leaf and Parmesan cheese. No milk. The veal, after about 3 hours of simmering, gets a fine crumble that coats and sticks well to the pasta strands. The key to the sauce, as Jenise points out in her post, is time. After 3 hours something magical happens and the flavors meld into something beyond the individual ingredients.
To go with the pasta, I opened a bottle of the 1999 Montevertine Pergole Torte. Too soon, but I wanted to check the integrity of the bottle, as it was a recent purchase and I was considering getting some more. The bottle seemed intact, with a low neck fill and freely spinning capsule. Not surprisingly, the nose was totally closed for the first hour or so, then mostly cedar smells. Later some attractive red cherry fruit shows up and a little dried tobacco, but the cedar was still the main aroma. In the mouth this is gorgeous, silky with refined ripe tannins and high quality acidity. It is quite structured, but balanced so no individual element sticks out. After about 3 hours of being open there are some hints of the complexity this may develop with more cellar time. The flavors, especially towards the finish become more interesting and layered. Potential to be outstanding. The wine went very well with the veal Bolognese, but next time I'm going to grill a porterhouse to go with this wine.
After dinner we watched the latest remake of 3:10 To Yuma. I found it entertaining, but a little slick. Some of the decisions the characters made seemed inconsistent, but I'm easily amused these days and enjoyed the film.
For dessert we wanted another glass of wine and opened the 2006 Schäfer-Fröhlich Bockenauer Felseneck Riesling Spätlese. I thought the wine was delicious and packed full of fresh Riesling fruit that runs the spectrum from peach to just this side of tropical. Great cleansing grapefruit like acidity and a long clean finish. Not without significant weight, but very fine.
Best,
Marc