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[TN] '89 Beaucastel

Last night, after a topsy-turvy day of canceled dinner invitations and re-invitations, Andrew ended up going over to a friend's house for a sleepover and Jean and I had dinner at home to celebrate our 23rd anniversary the following day (i.e., today). For dinner, I cooked a roast leg of lamb and sauteed locally grown asparagus with late-season (this year) morels from Minnesota. With this, I opened a wine from the year of our marriage, the 1989 Ch. Beaucastel Chateauneuf-du-Pape.

Our second (and last) bottle of this, when opened it revealed some maderization on the nose, indicative of some heat damage somewhere in the transport chain (not unheard of in this era for Ch. Beaucastel). That did abate with time and what remained was a remarkably fresh wine, tasting of cherries and only a slight hint of meat/game with very fresh acidity. It had thrown a bucketload of sediment, but a decant did wonders for this wine. Quite tasty with dinner, but not nearly as awe-inspiring as the earlier bottle, alas.

Mark Lipton

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Mark Lipton
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HAppy Anniversary!

89 Bo is quite variable (there is a story, that I've heard a dozen times though no personal knowledge, that a significant portion of US allotment got caught in a dock strike in summer).
Reply to
DaleW

This was the year that Winter didn't happen in the Midwest and a Spring that began with weather in the 80s. Of course, we were in New Zealand for all those warm temperatures, so now we're getting rain and temperatures in the 50s.

Mark Lipton

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Mark Lipton

"Mark Lipton" wrote ..........

Mark, we were in Central Otago for a few days on the weekend.

Primarily went so that Almarie could experience the wonderful autumn colours - did not disappoint.

Beautiful fine weather - clear skies - temps in early/mid 20sC - some snow in the high country on the day we left.

The only winery we visited was Amisfield (on your recommendation) - brought home a couple of the '08 PN.

Reply to
st.helier

Happy Anniversary :-)

89? What a great year :-)
Reply to
st.helier

Yeah, that's the story I recall as well. Repetition of a falsehood doesn't make it true, but anecdotally at least there seems to be reason to believe it. Add to that that we purchased this bottle in Florida for a fairly attractive price and it does make one wonder (our other bottle was purchased at Sam's in Chicago).

Mark Lipton

Reply to
Mark Lipton

Good on ya, St. H. We loved that '08 PN when we had it at Mt. Cook (nah, the setting couldn't possibly have made that wine seem any better than it was) but the barrel samples of the '11s that we tried there were really exceptional. Steph seems to be on her game, as it were.

Cheers! Mark Lipton

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Mark Lipton

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