Saturday night felt like a glass or two of red, opened the 1999 Catherine &
Claude Maréchal Savigny-lès-Beaune €œLes Lavières€�. Nose of flowers and
black cherry. In the mouth, bright red fruits, firm tannins and good acidity-
lots of body for a Savigny. Hint of spice, a bit of mineral on the good finish.
B+/A-

Sunday some friends came over, while we were preparing Betsy & I decided to
have a glass of white. The NV Aveleda Vinho Verde ( 2003 on back stamp) had
just a hint of spritz, with clean light citrus fruit. Nice for a $6 wine. B

When our friends arrived, they both were ready for a red. I decided this was as
good a time as any to open a 1976 Ch. Pape-Clément. Now, I bought this knowing
that Parker had declared it dead in mid-80s, but it was $6.99 at Premier Cru
and I needed a casefiller. Crumbly cork not a good sign, and it had a definite
note of brown as it was poured. Not much fruit, and a funky nose. I was about
ready to dump it, but both Betsy and our friend Joe found it interesting. So I
left it on table.

Meanwhile, I finished grilling the ribeyes (grilling in November, one of the
main reasons I am mostly glad I switched to gas) which were served over a bed
of greens with a horseradish/caper sauce, accompanied by an asparagus risotto
(not as food unfriendly as you'd imagine, the asparagus is smoothed by the
risotto). Opened the 1994 Rene Rostaing Côte-Rôtie "La Viaillere". Slightly
closed at first, then opened out with some red berry fruit, a little bacon,
leather, and a pretty fair dose of oak still hanging around. Medium-bodied,
pleasant enough, but not a blockbuster at all. And other than the bacon, not
especially Côte-Rôtie-ish to my inexperienced palate. B

Came back to the Pape-Clement. OK, the fruit is thin. Real thin. But there are
some nice cedar and tobacco aromas. Surprisingly, the color seems to have
revived in the air- not nearly as brown. Strange (maybe I just turned down the
dimmer on the chandelier of something, I've never seen color change like that).
Certainly drinkable, if past it, and ok for $7. B-/C+

The Maréchal Savigny also made a return appearance, showed nicely on night two
with good black cherry fruit to stand up to the meat.

Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B
a good wine, C mediocre at best. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a
party where it was only choice.


Dale

Dale Williams
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