Our good friend Joe invited us to dinner Tuesday night to meet his new
love, who was visiting from Amsterdam. I made a quick stop by a early
Thanksgivng dinner for the homeless my group helps sponsor, then we
headed to city. As our coats came off a glass of the NV Nino Franco
"Rustico" Prosecco appeared for each of us.

Nice lighter-styled bubbly, clean green apple fruit with a hint of
yeast and flowers, pleasant and easy to like. B

The other guests arrrived, and we had nice conversation over the
prosecco and a first course of Iberian ham, wild boar proscuitto, and
marinated fennel.

Next course was squid ink risotto topped with crispy cod (from Le
Bernardin cookbook). Joe had asked me about a match for squid ink, I
was a bit at a loss but thought his dry Chenin idea sounded good. He
had recently gotten from Garagiste some bottles of the 2004 Patrice
Colin V.V. Coteaux du Vendômois. I tried to like this wine, and tried
to identify it as Chenin. In neither case was I successful. This had a
peculiar herby quality, tarragon meets Indian spices. Good acidity, & I
really thought I SHOULD like an organic old vines Chenin, but this just
didn't do it for me. Give me Savennières any time. C+

I did love the dish, though. The main course was rocking too- squab in
puff pastry, accompanied by braised vegetables. We had a pair of
Nebbiolos with this:

1993 Poderi Colla "Tenuta Roncaglia" Barbaresco
My contribution. Medium-bodied, nose of roses and a little tar. Medium
raspberry fruit, some pepper, earth, and smoke on finish. A pretty nice
Barbaresco, but paled next to it's flightmate- just not the
concentration. A B/B+ still.

1989 Bartolo Mascarello Barolo
Moderately tannic (less than I expected, actually), intense nose of
spice, violets, tar, & red fruit. Dense and long on the palate, rich
concentrated black cherry fruit.Young, but offering a lot of pleasure
right now. Nice balance of acidity, tannins,and fruit. A

The cheese course came next, along with Chris's bottle of 1990
Pavie-Macquin (St Emilion). Dense black and red currant fruit with
that slight hint of roasted fruit that can characterize the '90s, some
leather and cedar on the nose. Nice finish, would have been WOTN except
for that damned Mascarello. A-

Debbie had brought a dessert of chocolate "minks" (I don't eat dessert,
but it was described as in-between pudding and souffle), plus Joe had
made a quince pudding. The dessert wine was the 2002 Feiler-Artinger
Traminer Beerenauslese. Sweet without being cloying, very floral and
with a hint of earth. Apricot and candied oranges, a very nice BA. A-

Fine evening, with old friends and new. Great food, great wine, great
company. The only thing that wasn't great was a 6 hour dinner the night
before a trip!

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.