Roast Beast Just Calls For a Cab

A little roast beef calls out for some Cab Sauv around this household. Since Boo wants us to start using up some of the wine we have on hand, I figured I was pretty lucky to find a bottle that was still hanging around from the days when we seemed to buy a couple cases of Burrowing Owl every year - back when higher end BC wines were a little more limited. Indeed, it seemed like everyone was clamouring to grab as much Burrowing Owl as they could in those days.

1146. 2003 Burrowing Owl Cabernet Sauvignon (VQA Okanagan Valley)

2003 was the year of the infamous Okanagan Mountain fire. While the worst of the fire was wreaking havoc further north of the Burrowing Owl vineyards, there were still small fires being fought closer to Burrowing Owl and nearby Osoyoos. As you might guess in a summer of fire, it was a hot year. The heat units were sufficient to ripen the Cab Sauv but there were fears that the lingering smoke might have a detrimental effect on the grapes and resulting wine.

Although this probably wasn't a favourite of the Burrowing Owl wines I've had over the years, I don't think it was the smoke that diminished the wine's punch. It definitely matched up nicer with the beef, but I fear the wine wasn't very notable for either structure or fruit profile when sipped on its own.

It might be a case of waiting a bit too long before opening it, but I can't publicly attest to that because then Boo will simply insist I can't buy anything new until we finish off all our bottles of a certain age. Heaven forbid.