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+

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

Thursday Betsy was working and I grilled a small ribeye, accompanied by
a smorgasbord of sides (ok, leftovers). I opened the 2001 Duhart-Milon
(Pauillac). I'm not totally sure why I bought several of these, I don't
remember tasting, and haven't really been a fan of the Duhart except
for the 1996. This is fairly open from the start, with cassis and red
plum fruit. Comes across as quite oaky. There's some Bordeaux earth
there, but the unintegrated oak is the so prominent that it's hard to
focus on any nuances. Over a couple hours the oak recedes just a bit,
there's some graphite/lead pencil in this fat puppy. Low-acid and
medium-bodied. I like better after some air. I'll let the others sit in
cellar to see if the oak integrates over a few years, but I can't see
this one being a real low-term ager- just not enough acidity and
structure. B/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