This past week was a quiet one and comfort food was of interest to us.  So we created a new version of Mollie Katzen’s Vegetable Stew from the classic Moosewood Cookbook.  The recipe was mostly followed but we broke off by adding more vegetables and Seitan.  Seitan is a great food when done correctly.  Unfortunately, I have not made it in so long that I overloaded on the liquid.  It worked out by adding in more whole wheat flour (ran out of Seitan).  The fake meat and extra vegetables gave the stew an added texture that hit the spot.

A wine that would best match the stew needed to have a fair amount tannin and acidity.  The closest thing I had (and one I wanted to drink already), was the Yatir Forest Cabernet Sauvignon 2002.

Yatir Forest Cabernet Sauvignon 2002 – Score A-

This wine is at its peak or a bit below it. The nose on this black to purple colored wine is filled with cassis, blackberry, and sweet wood notes along with a bit of dates. The mouth on this full bodied wine starts with cassis, black fruit and a complex layer of wood intermingled with fruit. The mid palate is somewhat tannic still. The finish is long with sweet wood, and hints of chocolate and tobacco. The mouth becomes much meatier as the wine opens. I would say that the wine shows itself best at the point where it transitions into the meaty phase. Once there too long the wine degrades and loses everything other than the tannin and wood. A nice wine for the 2002 vintage.

Finally, the wine is throwing off sediment at an impressive rate.  When I decanted the bottle and left the dregs at the bottom, there was still a fair amount of sediment in the decanter and in my glass after that.  It does not take away from the wine as much as it adds tannin and bitterness to the picture.