Friday was my 44th, and Betsy slaved in the kitchen, to prepare a nice meal for us and some friends. She had some assorted hors d'oeuvres out, and we started with some opened SB as well as the 2003 Basa Rueda. Again a crowd-pleaser, citric-tropical fruit with a pungent nose and a pleasant finish. B+
The previous night I had eaten at Beard House, and had mentioned (at 1 AM) to Betsy I hadn't tried one dish- in the garden a server never came my way with the spoons of carrot/mango/ginger soup. She found a recipe for carrot/mango soup, and adjusted it to add ginger. Now that's a wife! Excellent soup.
Next up was a chicken liver salad, over watercress and pickled shallots. The wine was the 1999 Droin Vaillons 1er Cru Chablis. Good acidity and clear mineral/stone notes, white stone fruit and some lemon, no oak showing, showing quite well- a surprising A- despite a so-so-vintage.
I had asked Betsy for a fairly simple backdrop for some Bordeaux, and she obliged with some delicious herbed chicken. Baked rice and green beans on the side. We did a little mini-vertical of Gloria (the '96 was alas corked):
1982 Ch. Gloria (St-Julien) Decanted immediately before the meal. This is a sentimental bottling for me, a dozen years ago it started my Bordeaux obsession. I may have liked it better a couple years ago, but this was actually hanging pretty tough. Some leathery blackcurrant and black plum fruit, aromas of cedar/cigarbox, herbs, and mushrooms. Time to drink up, with pleasure.B+/A-
1998 Ch. Gloria (St-Julien) Decanted couple hours before guests arrived. This was hard and a little green tasting at opening- not pleasant at all. By dinner time a better wine was showing - cassis with only the slightest hint of greenness, some oregano and graphite. Tannins apparent but under control. Not for the long haul, but could use a few more years to round out. B+
2001 Ch. Gloria (St-Julien) Soft and easy Gloria, ripe plum fruit. Balanced, without the structure of the '98. I'm going to aim towards drinking these in the fairly short term. B
There was also a 375 of 1996 Ch. Talbot (St-Julien) floating around. My second bottle from a recent acquistion. Black cherries and plums, ripe low-acid wine, some chewy tannins. My first bottle had a slightly worrisome roasted note to the plum fruit, but actually showed better on second day. This bottle didn't have the roasted note, some nice coffee notes layered on top of the fruit. B+
The leftover Chablis went well with some goat cheeses afterwards, while the reds tried to hold up to some Colston Basset Stilton (leftover from the Basset's birthday), port would've been better. Great night, great friends.
The following day started off with a lot of housework, vet visit, etc. But I made it over to Zachy's where I met Mark S. (poster here) and his wife visiting from Syracuse. We sampled some wines (insert usual store tasting caveats here): Big table of Australians. I skipped the Woop Woops and several others, but did try:
2002 Langmeil Shiraz- sweet, sweet, reminded me of the Marquis Philips. B-
2003 Kaesler Stonehorse GSM- good substitute for a bigger Côtes du Rhône (or a smaller CdP), though now at $15 (I paid $12 for last vintage), maybe pushing the value edge. B/B+
2001 Barton Vale Changling Shiraz- big, powerful, ripe. lots of oak. B
2002 Berry's Bridge Shiraz -huge, thick, just this side of syrupy. B-
The Bobby Kacher table:
2003 Domaine de Pouy - from ugni blanc. And it shows. No oak, but not much of anything else. C+
2003 Thomas "Clos de La Crele" Sancerre- nice flavors, but fat. Who needs fat Sancerre? B-
2003 Thibert-Parisse Macon-Prisse- again, a bit on low-acid side. B-
2003 Herve Seguin Pouilly-Fume- ok, not exactly zippy, but enough acidity to balance the ripe apple and fig fruit. B
2000 Campuget Costières du Nîmes Prestige - dense big wine for the money ($12.99), nice for style. B
2003 Mas de Guiot Granache/Syrah- clean no -oak wine, medium to full bodied, ripe red fruit, crowd-pleaser party wine at $8. B
2003 Fondreche Cotes du Ventoux - light nose, little tannic, a bit hot. B-
2000 Andre Brunel "Le Muret" Châteauneuf-du-Pape - ok CdP,red fruit and spice,but pushing the value envelope at $33. B
I invited Mark and his wife Ha to drop by (they were heading to Rochambeau, and driving right by our house). We sampled the leftovers from the night before- the '82 Gloria was really showing its age, and the '98 was holding up surprisingly well. The '01 seemed a bit flat on day 2. Mark brought in a bottle of the 2003 Dr. Konstantin Frank Dry Riesling. Really quite a nice wine, if not exactly totally dry. Ripe apple fruit, nice finish, B/B+ Very nice to put a face on a long-time Internet acquaintance.
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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