DaleW wrote:
> Someone had left a bottle of 2003 Rosemount Estate Shiraz (Australia)
> (aka diamond label) at our house at a party several months ago. When
> Betsy needed some red wine for a recipe Monday, I had told her that
> was fine to use. There were 8 oz left, and I sampled. My notes:
> "sweet, oakchip vanilla, sweet, blackberry fruit, sweet, soft, sweet"
> Just way too sweet. Now in the mid-90s this was a fallback party
> wine, good QPR at $6. Has the wine changed that much or my tastes? C/C+

I've wondered the same thing, Dale. Back in the late '80s, Jean and I
would buy Rosemount Diamond Mountain Reserve Cab/Shiraz by the case as a
house wine, and occasionally "splurge" with the Shiraz. Returning to
these wines, I find them simple, grapey and -- yes -- sweet, though not
so much as Yellowtail. Pity that we didn't keep a few bottles of the
old stuff around for a side-by-side comparison ;-)

>
> Wednesday the NYTimes had an article on Beaujolais. Florence
> Fabricant's suggested pairing was a curried roast chicken "Durban
> style" (out of South Africa from Indian immigrants). Now, this recipe
> was designed to match good standard or cru Beaujolais. But lurking in
> my cellar was a bottle of the 2004 Terres Dorres (JP Brun) L'Ancien
> Beaujolais Nouveau. I hadn't bought a bottle of BN in 10+ years, but
> had spotted this in store and thought I'd try, as I'm a Brun fan - I've
> never had old -vine Nouveau before. But it sat forlorn in the cellar
> for months. So it came out for a patio meal with the chicken, steamed
> asparagus, and some tri-color couscous. Clean raspberry fruit with a
> slight touch of bitterness to keep it from being totally fruit-driven,
> maybe a slight touch of earth. Fun and easy. There's nothing complex
> here, and the finish is quite short ("dammit, Dale, it's Nouveau, what
> do you expect? A 22.7 second finish!?!?"). But a pleasant wine to drink
> cool on a warm evening. Lots of sediment. B

I'm surprised that Brun even does a BN. What's the motivation, I
wonder? His L'Ancien is such a good wine that I'd think he'd be better
off selling it all in that form. Young vines, perhaps (the name argues
against that, however)

Mark Lipton