On the last Wednesday night of 2009, my friends from out of the country swung by house for dinner.  So we made one of our favorite dishes to share with them, Spaghetti alla Puttanesca.  It is an awesome dish that we have made many times before, and thank goodness this time was no exception.  To pair with the Puttanesca we made fresh green salad and some nice whole wheat penne.  As usual I am not content enough with making the watery puttanesca sauce; instead I add 32 ounces of the ground soy meat to thicken up the sauce.  It adds texture, heft, and a bit of flavor to the sauce, which is all good for me, but of course it flies in the face of tradition.  I understand that, but what can I do.  The recipe I use can be found here.

To match these salty and earthy flavors, I pulled out a bottle of 2005 Ella Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.  The mouth on this wine is packed, complex, and mouth coating.  It is a real joy, and I wonder if some underscore this one.  The wine note follows below:

2005 Ella Valley Cabernet Sauvignon (non V.C.) – Score: A-

The nose on this dark garnet to purple colored wine is popping with rich and ripe blackberry, plum, cassis, meaty notes, a bit of heat out of the bottle, chocolate, and a nice side of spice. The mouth on this full bodied and complex wine is extracted and mouth coating yet yielding tannins. The mouth is layered with blackberry, cassis, and plum. The mid palate is hopping with balanced acidity, oak, licorice, and more extraction, along with not yet integrated tannins. The finish is long and smoky with spice, licorice, and chocolate, all on a plush mouth that lies under and over a lush field of spicy oak and black fruit. This wine should be tasted immediately upon opening, but will show it best face with an hour or two of air.