what wine pairs well with Beef Wellington, tears and bitterness??

So yesterday's NFL games did not go well at all; about the only thing that worked yesterday was the wine we paired with our excellent dinner and the football debacle.

During game one, we went to Italy and stayed in BC at the same time, with this rare gem:

Inniskillin Discovery Series 2008 Sangiovese ($30.09)

Red fruit and a touch of chocolate and graphite on the nose. The palate is pleasant with lots of fruit and some mild spice on the finish. Tannins were smooth but this improved after time in the decanter and our glass, suggesting it might have been a tad young still. This isn't listed on Inniskillin's website anymore, which might indicate they are not producing it. I went and picked up another bottle and am planning to go back and pick up a couple more. 87.

For those of you not familiar with Sangiovese, it's the #1 grape in Italy. From Wikipedia:

Sangiovese - Italy's claim to fame, the pride of Tuscany. Traditionally made, the wines are full of cherry fruit, earth, and cedar. It produces Chianti (Classico), Rosso di Montalcino, Brunello di Montalcino, Rosso di Montepulciano, Montefalco Rosso, and many others. Sangiovese is also the backbone in many of the acclaimed, modern-styled "Super-Tuscans", where it is blended with Bordeaux varietals (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc) and typically aged in French oak barrels, resulting a wine primed for the international market in the style of a typical California cabernet: oaky, high-alcohol, and a ripe, jammy, fruit-forward profile.^[14]



 1/4 cup of this wine went into the sauce for our Beef Wellington dinner. It was the best Welly I've ever made, by far; the secret was just to cut the steaks much thicker so they didn't overcook while the pasty cooked correctly. It was beautiful, and we paired it with this bottle:

2009 Louis M. Martini Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

We had tasted the 2010 vintage of this and reported on it in this blog post:

http://deanswineblog.blogspot.ca/2013/12/vertical-tasting-you-had-me-at.html

I gave it 90 points, and (without referencing that score when tasting this one), I gave this one the same 90 score. Lovely and the extra year only smoothed it out further. We also decanted for about an hour (and aerated).





For dessert, we popped open an old favorite:


2012 Quails' Gate Riesling Icewine


Good as always, but too young; we made a mistake opening this one so young. Icewine or not, Riesling always benefits from time in the bottle and this one had yet to develop the complexities and richness that great icewine has. 85.