The other night, having found a great special on ribs at the local supermarket, my fiancee and I decided it was time to cook some barbecue with a slightly spicy sauce, with corn and baked potato on the side. Of course, that meant we had to crack open something nice from the cellar; in this case, we popped open the bottle of Two Hands Angel's Share '07 that I got her for Christmas (hey, she's an Aussie Shiraz fan, what can I say!).
The ribs were easy -- slather on sauce with a brush, cook at about 350 for an hour, then re-sauce and crank up the heat to 450 for 15 minutes to get a nice caramalization. Add corn and potatoes, and serve.
The wine? Glad you asked:
Inky purple with a neon-violet rim. The nose shows plenty of spicy berry notes -- think raspberries in baking spice. In the mouth, full, mouth-filling flavors of raspberry, cedar, and more of the spice. Some cherry on the finish, slightly bitter. Surprisingly velvety tannins round out the finish; quite tasty. A bit over-the-top; the wine feels almost too heavy in the mouth, but the finish is long and lingering. 91 points.
Incidentally, I can see why this was one of Wine Spectator's Top 100 wines of 2008 (#83, if you're keeping track). It was a truly uplifting wine -- a surprisingly decently-balanced wine given it's 15.5% alcohol level. True, it's going to be topheavy at that point, but that's to be expected. It's a darn fine wine, and for the cost that the Two Hands non-Garden wines command ($30 or so), it's pretty reasonable.
Great wine and you know how much I love Ribs!
ReplyDeleteI agree, the Two-Hands was very top-heavy but definitely tasty!
Happy 4th!
Cheers!
I was actually looking for something to go well with ribs. We're having them tomorrow for my dad's birthday and the sauce we make has a bit of a kick to it.
ReplyDeleteI will have to see if i can find it here...or at least something similar.
You should be able to find Two Hands in a good wine/liquor store. I've had Angel's Share, and Gnarly Dudes, and can recommend both. Other commonly available shirazes that are rich and slightly sweet & spicy are Marquis-Phillips, Molly Dooker The Boxer, and Elderton Ashmead (actually, the whole Elderton line is good). Oh, and Terra Barossa (their entire line as well). Other grape types to look to for spice are Tempranillo (Spain has the lock here -- Toro is a good region) and Zinfandel (look for Sierra Foothills appelation wine, or even better Amador or Fiddletown).
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