A friend came over last night, Betsy made her old standby recipe of duck legs slow-cooked with a mustard-crust, along with green beans and mashed potatoes. The mustard effect is quite mild, and my duck-standard Burg works well with this, but I also opened a Rhône:
1999 Chante Perdrix (Châteauneuf-du-Pape) Fairly fleshy CdP, peppery red fruit nose, then framboise fruit with a pleasant herbal edge. Tannins still a bit overt, this probably needs quite a bit of time, but its immaterial to me as I think I only have the one. Too bad. B/B+
1997 Jacques-Frédéric Mugnier Chambolle-Musigny Nice perfumed nose of violets and cherries. Clean red fruit, delicate somewhat feminine wine. Could use a bit more concentration, but quite nice for a village wine from a so-so vintage. Fully mature. B+/A-
Some other friends just got back from 6 months in Paris (he's French), our friend Dolores hadn't seen since their return, we invited them for cheese and dessert. The Chante Perdrix smoothed out a bit, the Chambolle seemed to fade by end (it had only been open about 4 hours by that point).
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. Dale
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