TN: Volnay, Fleurie, Morgon, Abruzzo, Graves, Tuscany

Duck confit with lentils salad, with the 2002 Chandon de Briailles Caillerets Volnay 1er I thought I started buying CdB in 2005, but discovered a couple of bottles in a mixed case. And glad i did- Red plums, woodsmoke, a little cocoa notes. Balanced acids, mostly resolved tannin, this has plenty of life left but drinking quite well now. With more air it gets floral, stays peppy. A-

My take on Japanese braised pork, on udon and steamed vegetables with a chicken/dashi broth Wine was 2016 Coudert/Clos de la Roilette Griffe du Marquis Fleurie. Lots of notes on CT about how open this is, but not my bottle. Clamped down tight, but glimpses of an attractive wine underneath. NR

Betsy?s home! I picked up her, her mom, and her sister from redeye.They slept while I worked, so just picked up pizza (pepperoni/artichoke/mushroom and eggplant rollatini) for dinner. The

2019 Montesecondo (this is the regular rosso, not the Chianti). Slight hint of spritz, bright raspberries and cherries, light and fun. Don?t come here looking for complexity, just enjoy. B

Friday was sesame/soy salmon and broccoli, rice, and the 2013 Grange Cochard Morgon Vieilles Vignes.Another somewhat closed Beaujolais, though not as tight as the Griffe. Black plum, coffee, a little cigarsmoke.Fairly brawny, ripe. B

Lobster risotto and salad.with the 2015 Valentini Trebbiano d?Abruzzo. Brighter and more citrusy than a recent 2016 (also delicious), grapefruit and lime blossom with a crisp mineral finish. A-

Sunday we started with oysters and leftover Valentini. Then we had lamb shoulder braised in red wine/mustard/rosemary, mashed potatoes (truffle butter), Brussels sprouts, and the

2000 Domaine de Chevalier. A friend had recently acquired the DDC, and I had conned him into trading me a ?00 for a ?05 DDC. We each tasted our wine on a Zoom call. I clearly won out by foisting that oaky international wine on him. The 2000 DDC was maybe a bit more plush/madeup than the classic DDCs of yore, but a solid core of dark fruit, some complexity with ferric notes and some cigarbox, with decent acid for 2000 and a good tangy finish. Quite fun, and better than I expected based on other early aughts bottlngs. B+. Best part was catching up with old friends.

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 party where it was only choice. Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency.

Good to hear. I'm sitting on a few bottles of '07 CdB P-V and Corton. Given their penchant for stem inclusion, I've despaired of ever seeing these wines open up fully.

And there we have CT notes in a nutshell. Half the time, I wonder if they're even drinking the same wine as I am. FTR, I'm not at all surprised that the '16 wasn't open. Dunno that I've ever had a fully open wine from Coudert.

I read some recent cross-talk between Sasha and Jayson C about a stylistic change at DDC in 2002. I don't pay enough attention to Bordeaux any more, but from your note I infer the same, and that the change was rather drastic. That's a damn shame.

On the subject of bright and cheery wines, I recently opened a bottle of the 2016 Jouan Coteaux de Bourguignons "Cuvee Thomas" VV. It's firmly in the Jouan style but even lighter and totally ready. It was a joyous bottle of silken red cherry fruit, inspiring Jean to question why we drink Beaujolais when we could have this instead (I mention pricing and availability as complicating factors;-))

Mark Lipton