Texas on the Plate Bodacious Red Wine: Bodacious Is as Bodacious Does!

Texas on the Plate Bodacious Red Wine: Bodacious Is as Bodacious Does!

Recently Chef Terry Thompson-Anderson posted on her Facebook page:

“Calling all Texas wine lovers! This Friday, March 1, Bodacious Red Wine, a Cabernet/Barbera blend, will be released at an HEB Cooking Connection near you. I developed this wine in conjunction with Greg Bruni, winemaker at Llano Estacado Winery in Lubbock, Texas. The wine was created to pair perfectly with any dish prepared using the Bodacious Red Soppin’ Sauce from my Texas on the Plate Food Product line. Quantities are limited, so get your supply early.”

It took some doing at my local HEB (Houston Montrose Store), talking with their wine manager, floor manager, general manager and cooking connection manager. But, day later, I finally got a call from my HEB store saying that they received Terry’s wine and that they were doing cooking/tasting demos with it in combination with her Texas on the Plate Bodacious Soppin’ Sauce. I also found out that the nearby HEB Buffalo Speedway store also received their allocation of wine and sauce for cooking/tasting demos.

If you know Terry, she is a person that likes her flavors with a capital “F”. No, come to think of it, they better be “FLAVORS” in all caps.  

Her Bodacious Red Soppin’ Sauce is a “Full Monty” of flavors made to wake up your palate with savory and a big dose of umami. The list of ingredients on the back made my head spin. I don’t know how she came up with the mixture.

When Terry told me about her new wine creation, I just couldn’t imagine how she would get the wine to work with this sauce; it was so big and multifaceted. However, after doing blending trials with winemaker (and wine blending magician) Greg Bruni, they nailed it and rightly called it Bodacious Texas Red: Cabernet Sauvignon with some Barbera and I am sure a few more hidden red varietals, as well. 

Bodacious Red is a fruit forward and approachable. It could be my new sippin’ Cabernet. Just imagine me a sippin’ and a soppin’! It’s warm and friendly on the palate yet food-friendly and quite interesting. It’s a 2010 vintage and fully a Texas appellation wine.

The wine has a dominance of blackberry and plum laid over a mid-palate with earthy mushroom and soy elements, then finishes with a medium, yet firm, tannic structure ending in a refreshing dryness. This wine is savory and umami just like Terry’s soppin’ sauce, but adds enough pleasant grape acidity to keep everything fresh bite after bite and sip after sip.

I opened my Bodacious Red wine after marinating my lamb chops in the soppin’ sauce overnight. The sauce, lamb and wine were great together, all melding admirably. My salute to Terry, Greg and their Texas on the Plate collaboration.

Stop by the Cooking Connection at your nearest HEB store to sample and you too can do some soppin’ and some Texas inw sippin’.