Saturday night dinner at our house began with a nosh inhalation of homemade roast salsa that had been generously sent to us by one of my all-time favorite wine bloggers, Samantha Sans Dosage.

If you don’t know her excellent blog, check it out. Not only do I entirely dig and follow her writing, I also feel a blogging kinship with her: we don’t really write wine blogs per se; we write blogs about our lives, our families, our loves, our fears… the stuff we drink and the stuff we eat… our music and our dreams… And for her family, as for ours, wine is nearly always a centerpiece of the dinner table.

Her salsa arrived via UPS on Friday (yes, it’s legal to ship salsa to Texas!) and by Sunday morning it was gone. It was THAT good.

Central Texas is a chili pepper and salsa mecca and I’m proud to say that this entry from my home state kicked some serious flaming salsa ass… Thanks again, Samantha! We LOVED it! And it paired brilliantly with a glass of 2011 Roussanne Stone Crusher by Donkey and Goat, orange and Natural and just slightly oxidative.

Tracie P, who’s eating for two these days, had a hankering for shepherd’s pie (which she made with ground beef instead of lamb).

It’s been really chilly down here in Texas and the dish filled the house with snuggly warmth and cozy aromas.

Georgia P scarfed it down like there was no tomorrow!

Italian Wine Geek’s recent post on a visit to the winery had me hankering for some Produttori del Barbaresco and so I decided to open a bottle of the 2007 classic Barbaresco.

If you follow along here, you know what huge fans we are of the winery and the wines, the collectibility and the affordability.

But I have to report that the wine is going through a very closed phase right now. Its tannin dominated its fruit and its earthiness, however delicious and satisfying, was dark and concentrated.

I never recommend not to open a given wine and I’m always thrilled to taste anything by Produttori del Barbaresco. But it’s time to put the 2007 classic Barbaresco back in the cellar and let it chill out for a while.

The fact that its so tight right now is a great sign, in my view (I saved two glasses for Sunday night and it was just as closed). This is going to be a spectacular wine. It’s just really restrained right now. This is typical for these wines (which I have followed for nearly fifteen years now): they have an initial period of brightness and then shut down. There’s no doubt in my mind that all of that dark earth and tannin will become a savory complement to the wine’s fruit once it begins to emerge again.

Anyway, that’s all I have to report from a quiet weekend at home here in the River City. Happy inauguration day, everyone!