86 Beaucastel: drink up

Emery, It's interesting to hear about this wine. Back when Jean and I moved here in 1990, we were dismayed to learn that Indiana law forbade bringing one's own wine to restaurants*, meaning that we had to rely on the (largely pathetic) wine lists of local restaurants. The one exception was an old school "Continental" restaurant that had '86 Beaucastel on its list for $35 retail (!!) Well, for the next year we would occasionally stop by and order selectively off their menu (I ritually got the duck in orange sauce as the least offensive offering) and order a bottle of the Beaucastel. After a year or so, we'd finished the last one from their list and never returned (it closed a few years later). At that young age, it was young and somewhat simple, but I'm not terribly surprised to hear how it's developed.

Mark Lipton

• In response to our question about corkage fees, the hostess at one local restaurant, after having the concept explained to her, responded "That's like bringing your own eggs and bacon to a diner!" Yikes!

We do not have corkage in NM either and it causes a 4x wholesale markup on all of our wines and not great wine lists either. I think they try harder when they have to compete with what you can bring.

Heh, you probably put them out of business when you stopped going. All that margin! :)

"Emery Davis" wrote .......

Tell me more - does Bambi climb trees to eat succulent leaves, or is your deer crossed with beaver?

:-)

We haven't adopted the antipodal habit of giving cute names to stuff we eat. Here it's "it" as in instructions to dog: go get it! Sadly the dog, who is somewhat overweight but less so than I, never comes particularly close to bagging the enemy. But points for enthusiasm and all that.

These deer eat all parts of the maple plant, bark, twigs, leaves. The rarer the plant the more they enjoy it. (I suspect some of the shady characters have hacked my stock spreadsheet. Imagine Rudolph with shades and a cig hanging out of his mouth, pulling the porkpie down with his little hooves, damn them.) ;)

Ah, and here I was, thinking that you were partaking of venison naturally flavoured with hints of Acer Saccharum. My mistake - your satisfaction was gained from an act of pure vengeance!!!!!!!!!! Or, perhaps my original thoughts may not have been far from the mark. Was it not Homer who wrote "“Revenge is far sweeter than flowing honey” ?

Regards from springtime in the antipodes.