Fantastic meal to finish off this freezing January week–and featuring the Schug 2011 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir.  The wine is great, packed with red fruit smells that have to include some cherries for sure.  We cracked it to precede a fresh fish, a salmon that my wife selected right from the market, and she dressed it with a lip-smacking dijon mustard sauce that added just the right amount of zip.  A little fresh green beans and voila!

I know you’re raising an eyebrow on the Schug with a fish.  Not quite the usual approach, but then again we’re not usual.  And truth be told, the red was really dead by the time we finished hors d’oeuvres anyways.  Stay tuned for more information on the Chardonnay that followed closely on its heals.

The wine seller remarked, “Fresh aromas of primarily red fruit, especially cherries and raspberries…on the palette, dark raspberries, cranberry, pomegranate, and nutmeg.”  I don’t detect any strawberries in here (glad) and am pleased that I got at least a light sniff right on the cherries.  Still, the nutmeg escapes me…

…but a very easy-going Friday night standard.  Last one of this series.

Schug 2011 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir, California, USA.