Betsy made a dish of green beans and tomatoes Thursday, but main
course was a shepherd's pie she had picked up at bakery (busy day). I
opened the 2006 L'Esprit de Chevalier (Pessac-Leognan). Black
plums, a little herb, moderate acidity, some fairly firm tannins,
just a touch of vanillin oak. OK finish. Not a bad glass of red
wine, but doesn't particularly say Bordeaux to me (much less Graves).
Still, at $5 am I complaining? Nah. B-/B

There was enough shepherd's pie that I had leftovers Friday, as Betsy
was playing in city. This time the wine was the 1999 Paul Jaboulet
"Les Jalets" Crozes-Hermitage. To me in their larger bottlings (at
least in 90s) PJA is probably the absolute king of bottle/batch
variation. The '95 Parallele 45 CdR ranged from the greatest $5 bottle
I remember to almost undrinkable. The range of the '99 Jalets has also
been wide, though never the heights of the 95 P45. So it was with a
little trepidation I opened my last bottle of this. This actually
showed some variation within the same bottle.
At first the acidity bordered on the screechy. But with a bit of
airtime the fruit seemed to expand , and countered the acidity. Redder
fruit than typical Rhone Syrah, but clean and bright with a little
earth and very light funky/gamy odors. I quite enjoy, but after about
a while it started cracking up, and seeming disjointed. Acidity
reasserted itself, and the fruit started taking on pruney notes. Rest
to the vinegar crock. This probably should have drunk up two or three
years ago, but this bottle was fairly enjoyable for about an hour. At
it's best, B/B+, but C+ is probably ultimately more realistic, even on
my totally subjective scale.

I felt like one more glass, and opened the 2005 Baumard "Carte
d'Or" Coteaux du Layon. CdL is generally sweet, but in my limited
experience less so than QdC, somewhere in the netherland between demi-
sec and full-blown dessert. This came across as pretty solidly sweet
however, baked apple pie with spices, for my tastes it could use a bit
more acidity. I found a glass more than I wanted, we'll see what Betsy
thinks tonight. This really should be more of a dessert wine - I was
careless opening this.

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.