Today was a beautiful fall day, sunny and in the fifties, but as the sun got lower in the sky the air cooled down very quickly. That made it a perfect night for leftover roast beef. This time to go with the roast I paired it up with a bottle of Zinfandel from Lodi, California. The wine, Mad Duck, vintage 2013 had 13.5% alcohol and strangely enough also bottled in McFarland, California. A bottle cost me under $15, which makes it a good bargain wine.

We started off with a tossed salad topped with bleu cheese and raspberry vinaigrette. The wine balanced the two tastes perfectly, the bite of the bleu cheese and the sweet vinaigrette. The leftover roast beef had gotten a wee bit hotter after sitting in the refrigerator for two days. I think adding the extra shakes of crushed red pepper helped. The blackberry tastes from the wine helped tone down the extra red pepper in the meat. At least I think so since Mitch didn’t complain, just poured a second glass, a good sign.

The wine was a dark red color in the glass, more transparent than the heavier opaque Zinfandels I’ve had in the past. This one had a slight alcohol smell with a bit of wood. The first sip had a spicy bite then the blackberries filled my mouth. The wine was somewhere between sweet and dry, a nice balance between the two spectrums and had a medium finish.

Though this wine is not the great big jammy Zinfandel of my dreams, it is still a very good Zinfandel. This one is a slightly lighter version of the big heavy Zins, I’ve had in the past. This wine would be a really good red wine in the summer when it’s hot, almost too hot for a red, just chill if a bit and drink away.