Betsy made Taiwanese fried chicken, with bok choy on the side. With Korean fried chicken (the real KFC) I like Champagne, but an online site suggested red with this dish. I tried the red, went back to Champagne with meal, but enjoyed red on its own.

NV Roederer Premier Brut Champagne
Full, rich, broad style, apple and pear with brioche. B/B+

2008 Drouhin Beaune 1er
Not sure Ive ever had this bottling before. Elegant for Beaune, vibrant and light with red cherry, mushroom, and earth. A bit of tannin, good length. Wish I had more.B++


Dana is here for a week, we know she likes oysters and thought shed like the fish ssam we made recently (this time a combination of fluke and halibut cheeks, served with lettuce, chili crisp, rice, etc).

2019 Patrick Piuze Coteau de Fontenay Chablis
Full, apples,. dry honeycomb, a little tropical, waxy, I like though it doesn't scream Chablis to me. B

2019 Alzinger Loibenberg Smaragd Gruner Veltliner
Sweet pea, mango, lemon. Very full, a little less acidic backbone and minerality than I expected. B-

Sunday I made duck legs on top of braised vegetables (turnips, carrots, radish, celery), sauteed spinach, salad waiting for Betsy to return from a recording session

2007 Mugnier Clos de la Marechal Nuits-St. George
Red fruits, herby, some sandalwood and earth. Resolved tannins, balanced acids, ready to go. B+

Monday Dana and Betsy made dinner together- chicken with apricots (and sumac and olives- a bit of an homage to a tagine), Brussels sprouts, couscous. Wine was the 2016 Pavillon de Chavannes €œCuvee des Ambassades€� Cote de Brouilly Floral, elegant, lovely. Red fruit, citrus zest, aforementioned floral notes, long finish. Excellent QPR. B++

I realize sometime lately Im a flood of B scores. With pandemic, pretty much solely drinking out of my own cellar/purchases. Without friends to share, I dont open my most prized bottles. And I dont purchase things I dont expect to like (usually based on past vintages of the same). So not surprising that I like most wines I try these days.. So my score range is fairly narrow.

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,

On 3/24/21 1:55 PM, wrote:

> I realize sometime lately Im a flood of B scores. With pandemic, pretty much solely drinking out of my own cellar/purchases. Without friends to share, I dont open my most prized bottles. And I dont purchase things I dont expect to like (usually based on past vintages of the same). So not surprising that I like most wines I try these days. So my score range is fairly narrow.

Jean recently commented to me that I have to start opening some good
bottles from the cellar rather than just the ready-to-drink stuff that
we keep upstairs. It is tough when you're not entertaining to just say
"It's Thursday. Let's open something good" but that's what I've started
doing.

Mark Lipton

On 2021-03-27 9:19 p.m., Mark Lipton wrote:
> On 3/24/21 1:55 PM, wrote:
>
>> I realize sometime lately Im a flood of B scores. With pandemic, pretty much solely drinking out of my own cellar/purchases. Without friends to share, I dont open my most prized bottles. And I dont purchase things I dont expect to like (usually based on past vintages of the same). So not surprising that I like most wines I try these days. So my score range is fairly narrow.
>
> Jean recently commented to me that I have to start opening some good
> bottles from the cellar rather than just the ready-to-drink stuff that
> we keep upstairs. It is tough when you're not entertaining to just say
> "It's Thursday. Let's open something good" but that's what I've started
> doing.
>
> Mark Lipton
>
I've been doing that but as I live alone, it's difficult keeping a
part-bottle of a classed-growth claret for the next night.
Graham

On 3/27/21 9:19 PM, Mark Lipton wrote:
> On 3/24/21 1:55 PM, wrote:
>
>> I realize sometime lately Im a flood of B scores. With pandemic, pretty much solely drinking out of my own cellar/purchases. Without friends to share, I dont open my most prized bottles. And I dont purchase things I dont expect to like (usually based on past vintages of the same). So not surprising that I like most wines I try these days. So my score range is fairly narrow.
>
> Jean recently commented to me that I have to start opening some good
> bottles from the cellar rather than just the ready-to-drink stuff that
> we keep upstairs. It is tough when you're not entertaining to just say
> "It's Thursday. Let's open something good" but that's what I've started
> doing.
>
> Mark Lipton
>

We are drinking up a lot of our good stuff as we don't have a lot of
people to share with right now.