Because my 91 y.o. mother-in-law can't stay up until midnight, we had an early celebration. Our appetizer was osetra caviar on gluten-free blini with the NV Vilmart Grande Reserve, our de facto house Champagne these days. As usual, this edition (2018 disgorgement) was replete with applish fruit, a minimal amount of autolytic toastiness and a mineral tinge to give it complexity.
Dinner consisted of a roast leg of lamb, alongside which we had the 2000 Ch. de l'Eglise Pomerol, which displayed a powerful nose of leather, earth, herbs atop plenty of dark plummy fruit. Although the tannins were fully resolved, the wine still had plenty of structure.
Happy New Year to all! May 2021 be a better year for us all! Mark Lipton