Wine Review: Fat Cat

Fine and Food Friendly Reds From Fat Cat Wine Company
Our Spotlight this week focuses on four great reds made specifically for our friends Mark and Tony Ancona (no relation yet determined other than a shared passion for great wine and food), owners of Fat Cat Pie Company  Norwalk, Ct. Mark and Tony decided to share these particularly fine and food friendly reds with us and we are proud to share them with you!

2009 Fat Cat 422 Cabernet Sauvignon
This particular Cabernet Sauvignon is made by Jamie Peterson specifically for Mark and Tony. Peterson is one of the finest small production wineries in Sonoma California. This Cab drinks almost more like a Bordeaux than a California Cab showing of a combination of dense red and black fruit mixed with splendid infusions of dusty earth and spice. This is perhaps the only amicable middle ground for the California Cab drinker and Bordeaux drinker to meet and enjoy a glass of truly stylish and hand crafted wine.

2009 Fat Cat 420
This wine is made from Carignan, a sometimes under appreciated varietal that produces brilliant dark-fruited reds in Southern France and Spain (where it is called Carinena). I cannot think of a better red for the money. Jamie Peterson, the winemaker has certainly adapted his fathers old school/Old World style of winemaking and it certainly shows through in this bottling. I might even go as far to call this wine's distinct earthiness a bit of 'Old World Funk'. A true gem and a true value.

2009 Fat Cat Rotie
This particular Syrah is made by Jamie Peterson for our brothers from another mother. If ya didn't get it, it's a simple play on words ("Fat Cat Rotie") that harkens to the 100% Syrah producing village in Northern Rhone, Cote-Rotie. We think it's clever as is the juice, a dense inky red packed with black berries, black cherries, asphalt, and the perfume of fresh cracked black pepper. A simply stunning California Syrah with Old World flare.

2011 Patricia Green Fat Cat Cuvee
Patty Green is one of the great winemakers in Oregon--there's no question about it. She crafts exceptionally earth driven Pinots that are the perfect balance of earth, ripeness, and delicacy. This Pinot Noir is grown on a bed of Kimmeridgian--that's fossilized sea shells, and a distinct minerally/chalky quality that shows amazingly well through this wine's well knit red fruit. A simply gorgeous Pinot worth every penny. Not to be missed. Meow?