For various reasons, we decided to have our Easter dinner a day early, so tonight cooked a leg of lamb in a vaguely Basque style and served it with oven-roasted Peruvian purple fingerling potatoes and asparagus (I gave the morels in the store a long, hard look but passed as they were $40 a carton and not locally sourced yet). With this repast, we brought forth from the cellar:
1970 Ducru-Beaucaillou color: dark red-purple center going orange at the rim nose: modest cedary overtones to dark fruit, becoming herbal later palate: medium body, fruity mid-palate, lovely secondary nuances, fully resolved tannins, harmonious, balancedThis was the last of a cache purchased jointly with Dale last year or so, and probably the best of the lot. Its most impressive aspect was its balance and harmony. It retained a freshness to its fruit and seemed quite primary initially upon opening, but later took on subtle but distinct secondary elements of an herbal-tobacco nature. Just lovely with the lamb, despite the liberal use of garlic, thyme and oregano in the marinade.
Mark Lipton