Battle of the prime rib reds.  On New Year’s Eve we sat down to a Bedrock Flintstone sized prime rib roast with two fine bottles of BC reds to compare.  Actually, we had a third, but never got there.

The competitors were a Nk’Mip 2009 Meritage and a Cab Sauv from Black Sage.  Both were outstanding.

The Meritage sipped silky smooth with notes of cedar and luscious bright berries.  It was, out of the bottle, stellar.  We decanted the Black Sage mid afternoon and didn’t pour any before we sat down to eat.  The Nk’Mip was Apollo Creed through the first 14 rounds but once dinner was served the Black Sage was Rocky Balboa.  Whoa.  Deep, dark, mysterious, food friendly to the nth.  Uncompromising in its statement as a forward Cab Sauv, but overwhelmingly complex too.  The Meritage simply didn’t have the (comparable) legs to bolster strong red meat.  Still, we loved both, and finished both.

Price: Black Sage readily available at BC Liquor for $25; the QQ Meritage, at about the same price, can be found at the friendly VQA stores in YVR.  Both outpaced the more expensive Nichol reds and virtually anything from the crazy prices for kindred reds at Le Vieux Pin.

Market Liquidity: Rolling in the deep, but no tears will fall.