Ken Wright 2002 Savoya Vineyard Pinot

WOW!

OMG!

Kill me now for I have tasted Nirvana!

To begin, the only thing wrong with this wine is that it's a school night so I can't drink the whole bottle. This has got to be the very best wine that has ever passed over my lips.

Everything that a red wine should be was in this bottle; rich ripe fruit tasting of cherries, plums, blackberries, vanilla, a hint of smoke and tobacco, pinch of black pepper and not a hint of any vegetal flavors. Smooth and full with great mouth feel without being overly viscous. The color rich red garnet with a deep purple in the glass like ripe Italian plums and just the ever so slightest hint of cocoa around the edge.


I decided that I needed to open something nice with some chanterelles I had tonight. Now some people live for chocolate, others the local asparagus of Spring. My food year is repeatedly made with the arrival of the wild mushrooms in fall; hen of the woods and lobster shrooms are ok and in fact most lovely but the one that makes it for me is the chanterelle. Perhaps it is the fact that it is singularly available and relatively affordable and very plentiful with the advent of Fall but I think it is the fact that it just suits my culinary style - butter, olive oil, garlic, shallots, pork, fresh ground pepper, thyme, pizza, parmesan, asiago, rosemary...these are a few of my favorite things (to steal a line made famous by Julie Andrews) and chanterelles fit right in with all those things. Fall is colorful leaves, smoke in the air from fireplaces or yard leavings, wine grape and pear harvest...aaahhhhh.


Tonight it was a twist on an old favorite - the same saute of chanterelles with garlic, butter and white wine I use for my bruschetta but tonight I made a pizza dough with extra olive oil and after the rise I tossed a bit more olive oil on the rolled out disc and topped it with freshly grated asiago cheese and then the sauteed chanterelles. Baked in a 550F oven for about 7 minutes and while it baked I opened the wine.


Oh the wine... I wish I could share this fine juice with the rest of the world. Those that say they can't taste the difference between a fine wine and plonk would fall to their knees and pee themselves over this make no mistake. Over my career I have had the good fortune to drink so many fine reds from every wine producing region in the world and I must say this is right up there with the finest and for my dollars even better. Now I don't recall whether this was a gift or whether this was one of the bottles purchased as part of a package of futures from Ken but the current vintage is running about $45 to $60 on the internet and if it's anything like this it's worth every penny.


What luck for me!


Anyway, hasta...