Notes from a wine dinner.

After a nice Loire bubble with a couple of tapenade on bruschetta
sorts of things, I did a kabocha soup with bacon bits and nutmeg on
top, served with

2010 La Frenz Sauvignon Blanc Rattlesnake Vineyard – this excellent BC
sauv blanc has been getting drier and drier and it is just about
perfect now. Nice varietal nose (gooseberry, not cat’s pee sort),
clean and crisp.

Next up was a Mushroom and Gruyere Tart with herb salad served with:

2010 Artazuri Garnacha Rosado – they get excellent colour depth on
this Rosado, and the sweetish entry quickly gives way to full
flavoured middle and medium acidic finish.

Then a Bacon wrapped Quail stuffed with Goat Cheese and Rosemary on
Braised Lentils
with Roasted Sweet Potato, Garlic and Shallots

1994 Ch. Haut Bailly (Pessac Leognan) – this was a real surprise.
Dark, with a big nose of cassis and vanilla, good weight in the mouth
and lots of softening tannins, and a smooth lengthy finish. Just
starting to get into my 94s, and this is on plateau and hitting
maximum enjoyability. If you’ve got them, time to start popping
corks.

With cheese, I didn’t want to hit them with anything as heavy as Port,
so I pulled:

1999 Masi Grandarella Appassimento – at 15% alcohol, still a big
cheese wine, but a notch down from many Amarones. yet still with all
the good things. Dark (threw tons of sediment) with ripe recioto nose,
good length and a fairly dry raisiny finish. Had one lady who wasn’t a
wine aficionado saying it was a very nice Port!

Highlight of the dinner for me was the Haut Bailly. Well, that and
the fact that the quail, cooked at 500 deg., set off the smoke
alarms….