July 4th was warm but with low humidity, and a nice crew got together in ou r back yard. Food included Grilled sweet potato/scallion salad Chicken wings Chips and crudites with herb dip, guacamole, mango salsa, baba ganoush with pomegranate Napa slaw Confit carrots Poat dot (Cambodian style corn) Clams with garlic Flank steak (marinated) Hot dogs and brats Lamb merguez, wild boar sausage, pork and venison sausage Peter Luger bacon
2 different potato salads Sesame noodles with chicken Assorted dessertsLots of beer, seltzer, and juice consumed. Wine too!
2013 Perelada “Stars” Cava Brut Nature. Very dry, crisp lemon and Granny smith, refreshing if simple. B/B- 2015 Keller “von der Fels” Riesling Racy, zippy, lithe. Citrus and chalky minerals, dry but not at all austere. A-/B+2014 Fournier Sauvignon Blanc Surprising color (fairly dark gold) but doesn’t taste oxidized, lig ht simple grassy wine. B-/C+
2014 Bailly-Reverdy Sancerre. Lemon, apple, a little catpee, typical and ea sy. B2015 Morisfarms Mandriolo Rosato Cherry fruit, quite floral, light bodied, popular. B
2013 Clos du Caillou “Bouquet des Garrigues” Cotes du Rhon e Ripe and kirschy, crowdpleaser if not necessarily a Dalepleaser. B-1980 Mt. Eden Cabernet Sauvignon I again liked this a lot, showing much more bell pepper than it had Friday night. Midweight, earthy, perfumed/ A-/B+
1979 Ch. Villemaurine Still some red plum fruit, some bright '79 acid, but there's an ashtray ele ment that dominates and it is a bit clipped. B-1979 Ch. Pichon Lalande Lovely showing, black fruit accented with cigarbox and mint. Elegant, midbo died, tasty. A-/B+
2015 Fresche Anjou Rouge Crackling black raspberry, some herb and green tobacco leaf, lean and refre shing. B+/BAt 7 we shooed everyone away, and went down to friends’ home overlo oking the river to enjoy the fireworks. I tried a Puglian red, the 2012 Tor maresca Neprica. Plummy, ripe, forward. B/B-
So for a small village the fireworks were pretty spectacular (plus we could watch the Nyack show up and across the river). The big finale came, everyo ne in park (we were on a porch above the park) was applauding, when all of the sudden the cheers turned to “eeks”, as the skies opened up. Sometimes it’s good to be on a porch.
Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C drinkable. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a p arty where it was only choice.Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivi ty, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency.