Friday night's dinner was lamb osso buco, prepared pretty much as the traditional veal variety. Because there were tomatoes in the braising sauce, I opted for a more acidic robust red and opened:
1997 Fattoria di Felsina Chianti Classico Riserva 'Berardenga' Rancia nose: overt pencil lead, mint and dark red fruits palate: medium-full body, acidity, smooth tannins
A decent match with the lamb, I found this wine rather unexciting, mostly because of the intrusive nature of the mint and pencil lead elements in the nose. Am I becoming too sensitive to mint in wine? Dunno. Dspite '97 being a low acid year in Tuscany, this wine had plenty of acidity for my needs.
Tonight, for a Mother's day dinner, I smoked a side of wild-caught Alaskan salmon with apple wood and served it with sauteed morels. To acompany the fish, I opened:
2002 Huet Vouvray Demi-sec Le Haut Lieu color: deep golden nose: honey, minerals, quince, pineapple, grape juice palate: crisply acidic, barely evident sweetness, rich mouthfeel, no hint of oxidation
Even Jean, who is hypersensitive to oxidative notes in white wine, found this wine to be appealing and the match with wood smoked salmon was sublime. There have been a few reports of off bottles of Huet's '02s circulating recently, but this bottle was on. It certainly has room for development, but to our tastes it could hardly have been better.
Mark Lipton