On Friday a couple of wines with dinner (pork/soba/snap pea stir fry)
1998 Nigl Privat Piri Riesling Stony and dry, grapefruit, slate. Mature but really tasty. A-/B+
1985 Pichon-Lalande (375) A wine I?ve liked before a lot but was hoping holding on in half. Nose was a little funky and sour at first, but brightened. Cassis, pencil shavings, tobacco, and herbs. Resolved tannins and totally mature in this format, but elegant and delicious. A-
Saturday I got some lemon sole from fishmonger at farmers market, Betsy prepared plus potatoes, broccoli rabe, & salad
2016 Barat Cote de Lechet Chablis 1er Tasty almost tropical fruit, decent acids, good length, more Chardonnay than Lechet. B/B-
Sunday we ignored the Oscars and had some friends (and one dog) as guests
Cheese coins (like cheese straws, a Gabrielle Hamilton recipe) and duck breast/hummus/radish canapes NV Godme Extra Brut Champagne At first this was a little too austere for me but I adjusted my expectations. Pear, apple, and a little vanilla, good length and depth, not much in the bready/yeasty line but intriguing. B+
Chicken with clementines, fennel, and Pernod (Ottolenghi recipe was actually for arak but didn?t have), brown rice, salad
2015 Castro Candaz ?A Boca do Demo? (Ribeira Sacra) A Raul Perez project (with a partner), old vines, field blend of Mencia with some Trousseau and Grenache. Young,spicy/peppery, crunchy raspberry and red cherry, herbs. Long and structured but offering pleasure. B+/A-
2016 Jules Burdin Beaujolais-Villages New producer to me, Straightforward, sweet red cherry and plum, modest finish. B-
Monday I took Betsy to a (very belated) birthday dinner at Vaucluse on Upper East Side. She started with the crab salad (apples, elderflower gelee, trout roe) while I had grilled octopus with teeny potatoes, carrot romesco, and pickled carrot. Then her primi was risotto with funky maroilles cheese, pear, & hazelnut (latter 2 ingredients were a nice crunchy contrast to creamy risotto), mine was rabbit & reblochon cheese ravioli with black truffle jus.A couple of glasses with those:
La Taille aux Loups 'Brut Tradition' Montlouis-sur-Loire I?ve had Jacky Blot?s non dosage before, this shows quite different. Fuji apple, some citrus bloom, easy mousse. B
2017 Foucher 'Les Ponts Romains' Sancerre OK, quite grassy, good with food but not much depth. B-/C+
My main was dry-aged duck breast with quinoa (baby beets & kumquat), hers lamb chops, with honeynut squash, cipollini onion, and spiced pear
2013 Terrebrune Bandol (375) Black plum, blackberries, some herb. Very ripe, like a dark-fruited CdP, good but a bit more heft than my ideal for the meal, but I thought best choices of the halves. B/B+ She finished with a beautiful lemon eclair with ice cream, I had some cheese-NY Tumbleweed, Point Reyes Bay Blue, Epoisses.
Delicious meal if not a wine memory.
Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C drinkable. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a party where it was only choice.Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency.