2006 Rasmussen Pinot Noir (Carneros)

We finally broke into a bottle of this ~$20 Pinot tonight. Was it a special occasion? No. But it's healthy and I like the taste of it. I paired this with a pan-roasted duck-breast (magret), duck-fat polenta (yes, you read that correctly David), and some mushroom-broccoli sautee -- magic doesn't describe it. The fat from the duck (or was that the polenta, with bits of mushroom in it?) cut through any pretension of structure and tannins in the Pinot and let the dusty cherry notes sing through. Sauce was a broth-P.Sirah reduction with green peppercorns and the leftover brown bits from the mushroom sautee (Cremini). The oaky-spice on Rasmussen's Carneros bottle was still on the nose, but with no dill to be smelled or tasted when paired with this duck. A good evening. A really good evening.
Wine was probably a 89/100 on its own. With the meal? 94/100
Bottom line: Quack quack quack, pinot for $20, quack quack quackity quack. Quack it.
Dessert? Meyers Family (Zin) Port with simple Kiwi fruit slices. Also friggin un-be-lie-va-ble.