Thursday was a long long day with no wine, so Friday I was ready. I
took a rainy drive down to Tribeca, picked up Oswaldo, then headed to
East Village to meet Betsy and Joe, who had been playing an opera
showcase at NYU. The winebar we wanted to meet at
(www.wineisterroir.com) was packed, but after a cellphone retrieval
incident we met at the winebar's sister restaurant,. Hearth. They
squeezed us in without reservations, and we had a nice quiet table in
the back.

We started with an amuse of warm red lentil (couldn't see the red)
soup with lemon oil. Then I had a great dish of fava beans and
pecorino with oregano. Betsy had a tasty halibut cheek. My main was
good Berksire pork, with a morel stuffed with sausage, along with some
veggies. Betsy had lamb pappardelle. We were pretty happy with the
food.

We started with a bottle of the 2006 Pinon "Cuvee Tradition" Vouvray.
This was good, but didn't quite appeal as much as previous bottle (I
think it might have been the match, a funny interaction with the favas
and pecorino). Off-dry, citrus, a little Chenin wooliness. I liked
more without the food. B

With the mains, we had a bottle of the 2000 Michel Prunier "Clos du
Val" Auxey-Duresses 1er. Oswaldo's call, I had never tried this
producer before. Good call Oswaldo! Very pretty Pinot. Opens with a
nose of cherry marked with woodsmoke. In glass it develops a more
earthy edge. This is delicate without being thin, not a wine for those
that worship size, but an excellent light to mid weight for a dinner
wine. Never heard much about Prunier before, but this was good enough
that Oswaldo and I decided to split a 6-pack. B++

Betsy and I split a cheese plate, with Ossau Vielle and Crater Lake
Blue. I was leaning towards an LBV, but Oswaldo mentioned he had
tried another vintage of the sweet Monastrell offered and liked. So I
got a glass of the 2004 Olivares "Dulce Monastrell (Jumilla). Very
interesting wine- Oswaldo had compared to a Banyuls, and it definitely
had a similar style- thicker texture, toffee and fig fruit, etc. But
this had a very unusual -and very apparent- note of green olives on
top. At first I wasn't sure I liked that note, but it was almost non-
existent on the palate, and this was a nice wine (and a beautiful
match with the blue). B+

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.
*