With grilled shrimp over white beans and arugula, the 2008 Heinrich
Mayr "Blaterle " ( Nusserhof, Bozen). This was actually a mistake
buy, I thought I had tried this and liked it at a charity tasting,
looking at my notes it was a Mayr red (Schiava). OK mistake, because I
liked this too. Light with lemon and green apple fruit, quite floral,
good zippy finish. There's a bit of an oystershell mineral note (of
course, when I notice that in Muscadet I associate it with being by
the sea, in this case I think they're high in the Alps!). B+/B

With pasta primavera the 2005 Paul Pernot Bourgogne. I drank several
of these after release, dug out couple I tucked away recently to see
if still alive. Good color, pear nose with a bit of a bothersome
cheesy streak. Luckily, that seems to fade with time. A revisit after
about 3 hours is showing quite well, and on day 2 it's still lively
(with zero cheese). Maybe a bit too light to pass for a Puligny, but
the clean white fruit, stony minerality, and focus do remind one of
its big brother. B/B+

With lamb stew (same night, couple of courses to clean out leftovers),
the 2000 Haut-Chaigneau (Lalande de Pomerol). This is the "Cuvee
Prestige" according to the back label, but just says Haut Chaigneau on
front, and I think they make only the one. Red plums and black
cherries, moderate to low acids, mostly resolved tannins. Pretty
standard RB satelite, holding on ok. Drinking well, pretty nice wine,
but was there really a point of cellaring this 7-8 years? No better
than at release, just slightly different. To it's credit it held up
well overnight. B

Tonight we made a couple of recipes from a new Lidia B cookbook (Heart
of Italy) - Betsy did an Abruzzian lamb chop with olives, while I made
a Ligurian green bean recipe. Betsy also made a non-Italian wheatberry
and spinach salad. Thinking Campania abuts Abruzzi (I'm wrong), I
opened the 1995 Mastrobernardino "Radici" Taurasi. Cork a little
crumbly, and I was concerned at first as there were some hints of VA
and pruniness coming off bottle. But with 10 minutes of air everything
was hunky dory. Ripe kirschy red fruit, some black plum, leather.
Tannins still there, but not as overt as when wine was released.
Drinking well and I;d expect to hold up well for several years. 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.**