Red Wine Reduction Sauce

I had the pleasure of cooking a meal for my friend Carol M (and 20 of her family members) for her 70th birthday in July. I needed a sauce for the roast Cornish Hens and this caught my eye at allrecipes.com. I had to ramp it up several times in terms of quantity but here is the original version that will easily serve four people. The prep time is totally worth it and the sauce is richly flavored. This would be great on any game bird or red meat dish.

Tip: reducing the sauce will probably take longer than stated, but keep an eye on it or it may suddenly burn in the saucepan.

3 T. butter
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
1/2 red onion, chopped
2 large shallots, chopped
2 T. minced garlic
1 Roma (plum) tomato, chopped
1lb carrots, peeled and chopped
3/4 lb fresh baby Bella mushrooms, sliced
1 (14 0z.) can beef broth
1 1/4 cups Merlot wine, divided

Heat the butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat; cook the onions, shallots, garlic, tomato, carrots and mushrooms, stirring until the onions are translucent and the carrots have softened (the recipe says 10 to 15 minutes, but it could take longer - go by the carrots). Pour in the beef broth and 1 cup of Merlot, and bring to a boil, scraping and dissolving any browned bits ("fond") from the bottom of the pan. Reduce heat and simmer until the vegetables are very soft and the juices have reduced by half (again, the recipe says 20 minutes; it could take longer).

Strain the mixture into a bowl; discard the solids. Return the sauce to the pan and boil over medium-high heat, stir in the remaining 1/4 cup of Merlot and reduce the heat to a simmer. Reduce the sauce until it is the desired thickness and approximately 1/4 of it original volume. At this point, I taste it for seasoning, adjust with salt and pepper, and add a little more butter to smooth out the flavor. Keep it warm until needed.