This past weekend saw me coming back to planet earth from my trip to Israel.  This weekend, I was finally able to actually sleep through the night.  What is so funny, is that the trip to Israel, and the return trip from it, showed no ill effects of jet lag.  However, after having been home for a few days, the whole thing came crashing down on me like a ton of bricks.  I could not stay awake, even with the aid of cups of caffeine.  Finally, as this weekend ebbs away, I am once again my loud and gregarious self, and blessedly not sleep deprived.

So, with a bit of energy in my soul, I decided it was time to get some warm comfort food into my body.  We spoke about it, and came up with Spaghetti Bolognese (san fromage).  The Vegan version though was killer, if I can say so myself.  The base was the usual mixture of onions, carrots, celery.  But I added in a few ingredients that I am sure would make a Bolognian roll in his grave.  I started by adding in some diced parsnip, and then throwing in some sliced sweet peppers for taste.  Of course I then added in a couple of cups of red wine.  Once the base was nicely reduced to a thick and bubbling cauldron of goodness, I threw in some soy meat and we were left with one of the best tasting pasta sauces I have made.  We paired the Bolognese sauce with some whole wheat spaghetti, which has finally become quite edible.  Before the recent improvements in whole wheat pastas, they were brittle, grainy tasting, and downright nasty.  Now they are almost as good as their nutrient deficient siblings, with all the goodness they can possibly have (remember folks this is still pasta we are talking about, a pig is a pig even in with its husk on).

As a wine pairing I took out a bottle of Dalton Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2006.  The wine was a real pleasure for a few reasons.  The most important one being, that the wine was not yet another Cabernet Sauvignon.  Not another over the top, over oaked, over extracted (though this had some nice extraction characteristics about it), and over fruity, bottle of wine.  The wine is not so complex, as it is unique, a real nice change of pace for a Cabernet Sauvignon, and one that I would gladly buy again.

The wine tasting notes follow below:

Dalton Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 – Score: B+
The nose on this royal garnet colored wine is filled with black currants, cranberry, anise, mint, and spice. The mouth on this medium bodied wine has flavors of cranberry, currants, and mint. The mid palate is packed with acidity, integrated tannins, and spice. The finish is medium long with tart cherries almost bordering on cherry heering (a cherry liquor), almost bracing acidity, and a nice amount of vanilla and nice extracted spice. The wine is not so complex, as it is unique, and really, a nice change of pace from the common over the top Cabernet.