Since we needed to claim some wines Jean bought at auction a while ago
in Chicago, we decided to make a weekend of it. A very decent dinner
was had Friday at Caliterra, the Cal-Ital restaurant in our hotel. With
our meal we had:

2003 Marco Felluga Pinot Grigio
color: pale yellow-green
nose: delicate floral notes and white peaches
palate: round, moderately fruity with good balance and a clean finish

Having enjoyed the PG of his brother Livio in the past, we took a chance
on this wine. Nice enough and seemed to have benefitted from barrel
aging, though there was no overt oakiness, but certainly a different
color from Livio's. It went well with my seafood ravioli in squid ink
sauce.

Sat. night we dined at Shanghai Terrace, an upscale Shanghai-Cantonese
restaurant located in yet another hotel in The Loop. Sidenote: we had a
great meal here and their 4th floor terrace has wonderful outdoor seating.

With scallop shu mai and lobster dumplings:

Nicolas Feuillate NV Brut
nose: simple and yeasty with a bit of underlying apple
palate: slightly coarse mousse, understated flavors

Having recently had a Laurent-Perrier Brut, we were a bit spoiled, but
the Champagne was serviceable and did complement the dim sum, which had
a fair amount of ginger, scallion and cilantro in them.

With whole braised red snapper in ginger-scallion sauce:

2001 Zind-Humbrecht Wintzenheim Gewürztraminer (375 ml, Indice 1)
color: golden yellow
nose: spicy lychee but a touch hot
palate: rich, moderate acidity, deep fig-like fruit, more than a hint of
RS and a lovely finish

Great stuff, and very good with the fish. It wasn't acutally our first
choice, but the 1/2 bottle of '02 Bründlmayer GV was sold out

Tonight with lamb I opened

1997 Sociando-Mallet
color: dark garnet with brick at the edges
nose: cassis, soy sauce and cedar
palate: initally a bit closed, but with airing it took on depth and
richness, medium body and good acidity

We are starting to open up our limited stash of '97s while waiting for
the '95s and '96s to come around, and this one was a good if uncomplex
wine. The virtues of this vintage IMO are getting true Bordeaux
character without a decades-long wait... oh, and the prices were good,
too! ;-)

postscript: we did pick up Jean's ill-gotten gains, and I also managed
to nip into Sam's where I picked up the '02 Roumier MSD La Bussière and
'02 Huet CdB and LHL demi-secs. There's still some left on the shelves...

Mark Lipton

If you think the prices were good on the '97 Bdx, you must have bought
more recently! The initial prices were for the most part preposterous.
But definitely some good deals (if you tried before buying) in last 3
years or so!

Thanks for notes!

DaleW wrote:
> If you think the prices were good on the '97 Bdx, you must have bought
> more recently! The initial prices were for the most part preposterous.
> But definitely some good deals (if you tried before buying) in last 3
> years or so!

You hit the nail on the head, Dale. As you well know, we found '97 and
'98s at fire sale prices when stores were trying to clear space for the
(truly outrageously priced) 2000s. IIRC, most wines sold for about 50%
of their initial prices. We still didn't buy *that* much, though...

Mark Lipton

> 2001 Zind-Humbrecht Wintzenheim Gewürztraminer (375 ml, Indice 1)
> color: golden yellow
> nose: spicy lychee but a touch hot
> palate: rich, moderate acidity, deep fig-like fruit, more than a hint of
> RS and a lovely finish
>
> Great stuff, and very good with the fish. It wasn't acutally our first
> choice, but the 1/2 bottle of '02 Bründlmayer GV was sold out
>

again, Alsace, undervalued, yet where can we find such a sspread of
varietals at such reasonable prices, even in the UK....schhhhhhh!

I'd agree that Alsace is undervalued, but ZH is probably one of the
prime exceptions. I like some of Olivier Humbrecht's wines(I generally
prefer the Gew & PG to the Rieslings, and the desserts to the drier
versions) , but prices can get scary.