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Day two of a four day weekend called for a terrific California Cab. Fortunately I had one in the house - the '07 Larkmead Cabernet. Deep, dark garnet red, inky. The nose has intense dark red fruit, some earthy AND floral components, a bit of spice, minerality, some lead pencil. It's mid- to full-bodied, bright acidity, cherry, raspberry, cola, and a mid-length finish, but intense to the end.
I drank it with cheeses including Maytag Bleu Cheese (awesome), a fresh goat cheese (darn good), brushetta (surprisingly this worked really well, balanced acidity to acidity, with fresh tomato against the fruitiness of the wine), with peppered salami (yep, goes with Cab!) and a regular sopresseta-style salami (fatty with the acidic Cab, great pairing). It didn't go well with the hard parmesan or the cheddar though (no expectation that it would, just tried it for the heck of it as it was on the plate).
This wine is currently second on my list of favorite Cabs - Snowden The Ranch 2007 is in first place, and these are remarkably similar, but the Larkmead is a bit more money at about $65 here in Central New York. But the Snowden isn't available anymore...
Larkmead's website: http://www.larkmead.com/wines/07nvcs.php
Cellartracker's page: http://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=639647
