TN 4th of July wines

On Independence Day I happily picked up Betsy at LGA, and had a quiet afternoon before heading to friends for a dinner party. Jim grilled ribs in the rain, along with some corn I had slathered with a chili-lime butter before rewrapping husks. Other contributions were a nice layered dip (guacamole, bean pesto, cheese, etc), a beet and orange salad, and a peach pie. Several wines sampled:

2005 Terres Dorees (JP Brun) Beaujolais Blanc (my supply of American whites is exceedingly small, I figured we could toast Lafayette). Ripe Bartlett pear fruit, bright, light, lovely. Some flinty/chalk. Very tasty, fine value. B+

2004 Frei Brothers Merlot Reserve ( Dry Creek Valley) Sweet , sweet, with black and blue berries, some chocolate, short finish. B-/C+

2003 Casa Lapostolle "Cuvee Alexandre" Cabernet Sauvignon Lots of oak and tannin, but a good core of cassis fruit. A bit of herbiness, but not over the top. If the oak was reined in a little on this I think I'd like it, though the tannins could use a couple years. B

1999 BV "Rutherford" Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa_ From the problem period, and this reeked of TCA. Oh well.

2005 Clos laChance "Ruby Throated" Cabernet Sauvignon (Central Coast) Worried about the BV, I had brought a backup. Softer side of Cabernet, but nice fruit and good length for a $12 CS. Red currant and plums, good finish, a little cocoa. B

A fun rainy July 4th. Dinner was spiced up by reading the Declaration of Independence and playing Wise and Otherwise, a game where you try to complete folk sayings (faced with "When a c*ck ruffles his feather", I put down "make coq au vin", which garnered no votes as the real answer, but felt was more satisfying than the original ).

Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C mediocre. 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

Reply to
DALE WILLIAMS
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Sounds like a lovely evening.

We also grilled some corn (unhusked), but had bought way too many ears and had much left over. I devised a salad that was just wonderful the next day:

Cut the corn off the cobs Add a bit of chopped tomato for color, and a touch of fresh garlic, salt & pepper. Then 2 tbs. Styrian pumpkin seed oil & 2 tbs. apple cider vinegar. Figure this amount per each cup of corn- and then adjust to your taste (of course).

Not surprisingly, we paired this up with some other Austrian salads and opened some chilled Styrian & Wachau whites. It's in the triple digits where I am this holiday, so this all made for a perfect light dinner.

One question for you Dale- explain this Wise and Otherwise game a bit more: it sounds like great fun.

Reply to
e. winemonger

Salad sounds great!

Wise and Otherwise:

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we didn't actually play the pieces, just took turns as reader (wikipedia doesn't mention, but you have choice of 5 proverbs, you choose and then say" there's an old Latvian saying, " one ox......"). You could play without actual game, if you had a book of proverbs. Fun, and I don't think the real response ever got 50% of the votes.

Reply to
DaleW

Interesting. Yes, it is a bit like Balderdash, a game which my family has played since time immemorial at holidays (but which we called b**ls**t, dainty folk that we are).

Mark Lipton

Reply to
Mark Lipton

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