My favorite players the week were…
Offense
George Kittle 49’ers tight end
Six years ago George Kittle was joking on the sideline & accidentally created National Tight Ends Day on the 4th Sunday of October. The NFL marketing people ran with it & now it is hyped up every year. This year tight ends caught more passes (177) than any other weekend in NFL history. Kittle stood out on his pseudo holiday. He caught 6 passes on 7 targets for 128 yards & a touchdown, a 21.3-yard average per catch. On an offense missing key players, he looked like Brock Purdy’s security blanket. He also registered his 500th catch. Barring injury, in the next couple of weeks he should move into m3rd place all time in catches for the 49’ers behind Jerry Rice & Terrel Owens. That’s great company.
CeeDee Lamb Cowboys wide receiver
Kittle wasn’t the only one putting up big numbers in the 49’ers/Cowboys game. Lamb had 13 catches for 146 yards & 2 touchdowns in a losing effort.
Jameis Winston Browns quarterback
Are Browns fans excited or depressed about Winston’s performance? On the one hand, this was an excellent performance by Winston. He completed 27 of 41 passes for 334 yards, 3 touchdowns, & no interceptions (always the concern with Winston). Even better, it was against the Ravens. Maybe he can help turn the season around.
On the other hand, the Browns still have 2 years left on their guaranteed contract with Deshaun Watson. Are they going to get a few games to see how good the team could be with a quarterback playing at a higher level just to go back to Watson next year?
I think they should enjoy the win & leave it at that.
Kirk Cousins, Atlanta Falcons
Cousins must wish he could play the Buccaneers every week. He threw for 4 touchdowns on 23/29 passing for 276 yards. He became the 4th quarterback in NFL history to throw for at least 750 yards & 8 touchdowns against 1 team in a season. The others are Hall of Famers Joe Montana, Dan Marino, & Y.A. Tittle. I think Tom Brady would have joined that list if they had left him in the Titans game in 2009, but he got pulled early in the 3rd quarter after throwing for 383 yards & 6 touchdowns.
Defense
Defense: T.J. Watt Steelers linebacker
Watt had 7 tackles with 2 sacks, a forced fumble, & a fumble recovery.
Will Anderson Jr. Texans defensive end
This might be more of a group effort award. The Texans had 5 sacks in the game & Danielle Hunter had 2. I went with Anderson because he had 7 total tackles, with 5 of them solo to go with a sack & a fumble recovery.
Special teams
Kalif Raymond Lions wide receiver
What a massive game for Raymond! He was dangerous every time he touched the ball. He had a 90-yard punt return for a touchdown. He totaled 190 yards on 5 punt returns. He also caught 2 passes including 1 for a touchdown
Calvin Austin Steelers wide receiver
Austin returned a punt 73 yards for a touchdown as the Steelers beat the Giants on Monday night.
My favorite wine of the week is…
Restless River Cabernet Sauvignon ‘Main Road & Dignity’ 2020 The Hemel-en-Aarde South Africa $150.00
Cabernet Sauvignon 14% ABV
The Hemel-en-Aarde is situated close to the South Atlantic & one of the coolest wine regions in the country. Because of the cool nature of the region, it is best known for Chardonnay & Pinot Noir. Restless River makes a very good Chardonnay (earthy, crisp acid, mineral driven) & an excellent Pinot Noir (classic ripe fruit with bright acidity, beautiful herbal notes, long finish with some umami). The wine that blew me away though was their Cabernet Sauvignon. You don’t generally find high quality Cabernet in a region best known for Chardonnay & Pinot Noir. The grape needs heat & time to ripen.
The vineyards for this winery are at an altitude reaching 1200 feet and 3 miles from the cold South Atlantic Ocean. Craig and Anne Wessels bought the land in 2004. It is a small portion of a larger property that belonged to Craig’s ancestors in 1760. The property abuts the Babylonstoren Nature Reserve. There were some Chardonnay & Cabernet vines planted already. They added more vines & planted Pinot Noir. They follow organic practices, although they are not certified as organic. Craig is the self-taught wine maker. Main Road and Dignity are two single vineyards that are the oldest Cabernet Sauvignon vineyards in the Upper Hemel-en-Aarde, planted in 1999. They get low yields & allow the grapes to hang as late as May to achieve ripeness. The low vigor/low yield vineyards mean that the grapes tend to be smaller than average, which means more skin to juice, which means higher tannic potential.
The grapes are hand-picked, mostly destemmed with 20-30% whole berry, then basket pressed. It was fermented with native yeast in open top wooden fermenters, over 3 weeks on average, then into barrels. The wine spends 23 months in barrel with 25% new French oak, then 2 years in bottle prior to release. They produced 9,222 bottles of the 2020.
How does it taste? This is classic Cabernet Sauvignon that doesn’t run away from the pyrazines inherent in the grape. It has beautiful leafy green notes, herbs, blackberry, mineral (graphite), with intense cassis at the back of the palate. There are also notes of incense, tea leaf, & a slight saline note. It has an extremely long finish. The tannins are fine & integrated, so that the wine has deep structure without the tannins overwhelming it. I have tasted hundreds of South African Cabernets & this might be my favorite.
I talked with Craig about how much I loved the embrace of the leafy nature of Cabernet & he said that he was happy for “Cabernet to taste like Cabernet.” He was an engaging advocate for South African wines in general & specifically what can be done in The Hemel-en-Aarde where they have primarily small quality focused producers.
If you are worried about the tar & earth notes of some South African wines, don’t be. This is a clean & sophisticated wine. If you like Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon, or structured & elegant Left Bank Bordeaux, give Restless River’s Cabernet Sauvignon a try. It might be your new under $100 Cabernet for special occasions.
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