Beyond Zinfandel, another good wine pairing for steak might be Mazzocco’s 2005 Petite Sirah from the Aguilera vineyard in Dry Creek Valley, a very rich, elegant wine with big fruit, spice, vanilla, and wild berry flavors. Or try their 2005 Petit Verdot from Monterey County, with more rich fruit, violets, and toasted oak. These are lush, high-alcohol, richly perfumed wines. Petit Verdot, by the way, is one of the five grapes that make up the Bordeaux blend in France. It is used sparingly in both the right and left banks, accounting for a tiny fraction of the blend, so you can imagine how rich and sumptuous it can be on its own as a single varietal.
Mazzocco wines, across the board, are powerful, vibrant, and almost royal in their purple power. Indeed, they are so assertive they almost seem to jump out of the glass, look down their figurative noses at the food they are being paired with, and demand an answer to the question: “who’s the star here, you or me?” And between you and me, they are quite right to do so. Though Mazzocco’s wines do complement a steak, in the end they have so much richness and personality the wine ends up being complemented by the steak.
Life is all about experimentation, so if you are a solid Cab or Merlot drinker with steak, at your next dinner party you might create a fun mini-tasting by paring the steak course with two wines simultaneously: a Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot, along with a Zinfandel, Petit Verdot, or Petite Sirah. Then come to your own conclusions.
Cheers!
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