This past week we enjoyed a quiet weekend of chicken, rice, and salad. Yeah, sounds like a slight broken record but hey these past few weeks have been crazy. Mind you they are NOTHING like Rogov’s week, so count your blessings my friends!

In the end, pretty simple, my wife’s already patented roasted lemon and rosemary chicken, Basmati Brown Rice, and a nice fresh green salad. The wine we chose to pair with this meal was a lovely bottle of 2006 Barkan Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve. I read Daniel’s posting from his book, highly recommended, and I was not expecting too much. In the end, the wine was really enjoyable, rich, and unique with all of its tobacco and black fruit that I did not see in Daniel’s notes.

The chicken this past week was a bit too lemony because, wait for it (LOL!!), we used too much lemon! God how some things are indeed not complicated in this world!!! Anyway, the chicken was still fine, it needed a bit more herbs and heat (translated into red pepper flakes) and all was fine!

In my humble opinion, the wine held up fine and all was good. We had it the next day with cold cheese and avocado, and again, the wine was really enjoyable. To me the wine could hold out another two years given its state of tannin, which while somewhat smooth, is clearly NOT flat!

The wine note follows below:

2006 Barkan Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve – Israel, Galilee, Golan Heights  – Score: B++
The nose on this dark garnet to purple colored wine is filled at first with ripe black fruit, blackberry, cassis, and raspberry, over time blackcurrant comes to the surface, along with mounds of fresh tobacco, crushed herbs, rich oak, and a hint of chocolate and vanilla. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine is filled with blackcurrant, blackberry, raspberry, crushed herbs, and nice tannin. The mid palate is balanced with acid, rich oak, tobacco, chocolate, and more nice tannin. The finish is long and spicy with more rich oak, tobacco, blackcurrant, chocolate, vanilla, sweet tannin, and leather. This is a really nice cabernet that will not blow you away but will really get your attention and keep it throughout the meal.