(title has nothing to do with the wine, just best line of movie, about
some substandard ham)

Last night was Betsy had a rare Saturday night off. She played a
matinee, then came home. She took a nap while I prepped for dinner,
then we watched the French film "D=E9calage horaire " (Jet Lag in
English). Cute but not great movie (I wished it had ended about 3
minutes sooner), but it includes a scene where Jean Reno makes Juliette
Bincohe a veal medallions dinner. Jcoultert had recommended the recipe
(available on the film's page at imdb.com), and indeed it was quite
good. Julienned squash, leeks, carrots, and tomatoes sauteed, then veal
flambeed with Armagnac. Betsy and I had fun preparing after the movie.

In the movie and in the recipe they went for Bordeaux ('96
Calon-Segur), I followed their lead and went with the 1999
Leoville-Poyferre. Opened (a small glass poured, but not decanted)
before the movie, it was smooth and ready by dinner time. Clean ripe
dark berry/cassis fruit, there's a bit of chocolately new oak but even
more Medoc earth. Graphite and smoke on the finish. More gracefully
powerful than muscular, there's enough tannin to make me think this
will be better in 5-10, but pretty nice now. I don't think it's an
especially good match - I'd make dish again, but with a lighter red or
a powerful white (not just the veal- the veggies were a bit like
ratatouille, and I need a white would do well). But a nice wine, one of
my favorite '99 Bdx. A-/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