Matanzas Creek Winery 2005 Sonoma County syrah

There’s a wonderful, sense-assaulting winery on the southeastern edge of Santa Rosa, California. Its history affirms the common-sense, intuitive notion that it isn’t just the quality of a wine that makes it sell, but it’s in marketing that assaults all the human senses enough to overwhelm people with strongly positive feelings.

Feelings. You feel something when you approach the winery. In season, lavender plants dominate the scene. It’s done intentionally, the winery wanting to evoke a sense that, magically, you’re in some particular part of Tuscany in Italy. It works.

You carry the feeling into the tasting room. There you find, let’s say, the 2005 local syrah. It’s alcoholic — 14.5 percent — but it’s smooth . .  s m o o t h . . . !

And fruity. For $15 to $20 bucks you can experience extreme comfort and uplift.

So . . . you save it to drink with a truly special food.

Or, not.

This noon, I smeared one half of an Oroweat thin sandiwich muffin with reduced-fat mayonnaise. I shredded a couple of tablespoonfuls of peccorino romano on that, and topped it with a couple of slices (broken up) of thick, platter bacon. (Judy gets “ends and pieces” of this from a high-quality Chinese grocery — might you be so lucky, or smart, or both, to find such a supplier).

I sliced Cabot aged cheddar cheese and some Monterey jack on top of that, put the assemblage on an ovenproof salad plate, and gave it 30 seconds of microwave poison (or, maybe the microwaves are safe, I don’t know; ask me if I care).

Wow.

Sandwich powerful by itself. With the syrah, WOW! Try it. Not just with any California syrah, with this one. –Bob Cramer, The Fearless Taster.