Crisp, cool fall weather with a great SEC football game on the television, a thick juicy steak on the grill, and a good bottle of California red wine ready to open, life just couldn’t get much better!  The steak was a two inch thick rib eye cooked medium rare, and the California red was the 2012 Coppola Black Label Claret.  The football game does not matter since there were at least three great SEC games on last weekend.  In the South we love Sec football, thick steaks and California red wine, and not necessarily in that order!

I have always enjoyed the Coppola Claret, which is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, and Petite Verdot in the classic Bordeaux Claret style.  The British attached the name Claret to these great Bordeaux Chateau Reds many centuries back, and the name suits the Coppola offering as well.  The wine is an intense, dark ruby red in color, with a fragrance which leaps out of the bottle and attaches itself to your senses with a stronghold grip.  The flavors are succulent with the essence of cherry, plum and blackberry struggling with each other to achieve dominance against a background of chocolate and smooth tannins.  The finish is long and clean, with the black cherry taste drifting off into the night.

I love California Reds, but I have always had a place in my heart for  French Bordeaux Clarets.  Unfortunately I have not always had a place in my pocketbook for the French offerings.  At under twenty dollars per bottle the Coppola Claret helps soothe that longing for the classic blends of Bordeaux.  Excellent with grilled meats, the Coppola Claret would also make a great companion for Chateaubriand, or Rack of Lamb.  Norm’s score is 91.