Wines in Maine and NY- Burgs, Loire, Germans, and more
 

For our weekly Zoom tasting (in my case with a Singapore style dish of fresh rice noodles, Chinese sausage, shrimp, and greens), 2 half bottles of Auslese

2007 JJ Prum Graacher Himmelreich GKA
Powerful but sprightly, rich pit fruit with honey, nuts, and wax, some light petrol notes on super-long finish. A-/A

2005 Donnhoff Oberhauser Brucke Auslese
This seemed heavy and plodding in comparison, and I gave it a B- .
But took this with me to Maine, and it showed much better, I think just in awkward stage.

We headed to Maine ahead of Isaias, though I spent much of vacation dealing with power outage at office, loaning my generator, etc). 3 nights on Drakes Island in Wells, lovely house looking out on marsh.

With waygu burgers, the 2012 Bachelet Bourgogne rouge. Drinking quite well now, vibrant black cherry, some earth and smoke, good balance. B/B+

With lobsters, lobster risotto, corn, and burrata caprese
2010 F. Carillon €œPerrieres€� Puligny-Montrachet 1er
takes a while to really open up, oak is integrating but still quite notices, balanced acids, pear and almond flavors. Nice sturdier style of Puligny. B+/A-

Thursday we drove to Falmouth (near Portland) for dinner on deck with a friend/colleague of Betsys. Lilys family put out a nice spread - lobster/kimchi dumplings, seafood paella, fennel salad, blackberry granita
NV La Marca Prosecco
Just offdry, light, hint of canned fruit. B-/C+

2018 Collestefano Verdicchio di Matelica
Crisp, seashell, lemon, good food match. B+/B

(I left a "74 Barolo with strict instructions about standing up for a while)

Back to NY, a little time at (dark) office, then home to dinner- Betsy steamed and then roasted a duck, with Swiss chard and rice

2008 Aurelien Verdet Nuits st. George
Hmm, found a couple of these in a box of Burgs, no memory of buying. In Burgundy I almost never buy outside a set of producers I know I like, and I dont recognize this producer. But its actually pretty good- light color, snappy raspberry and cranberry fruit, good acids, light tannin, floral. Its actually quite €œfeminine€�, not something Id expect from NSG, but I like. B+

Saturday some oysters, grey sole, broccoli, and pasta with tomatoes.
2018 Pepiere €œGras Moutons€� Muscadet
Full and rich style of Muscadet, pear and Granny Smith over wet rocks. B++

Some friends came for dinner (spaced, of course)
Canapes (smoked steelhead on cuke, hummus on beet, white bean/garlic scape on radish)
caprese
Pickles, corn, potato salad, pork chops

2019 Bauer Rose (Niederosterreich)
Very light, cherry meets Jolly Rancher, ok. B-/C+

2018 Keller Riesling Trocken
Citrus and ginger, nervy, but didnt appeal to me like earlier bottles. B/B-

2016 Roillete/Coudert €œGriffe Marquis€� Fleurie
Black cherries, cherry blossom, earth and coffee. Lovely balance, rich for Fleurie, long. A-/B+

Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C
drinkable. 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.