http://www.comics.com/comics/franknernest/index.html

Loosely wine-related.

Dan-O

Wednesday was warm but gorgeous, with low humidity for July in NY. I
went to the waterfront concert for a picnic with friends, then joined
Betsy at her sister's home as they arrived from DC. A variety of wines
tasted:

2006 Catherine and Claude Marechal "Cuvee Antoine" Bourgogne
I love the Marechals' reds, but I just couldn't warm up to this.
Rather big, with flavors of tropical fruit, grapefruit and apricot,
part of my lack of bonding with it was just it not being what I
expected from a Bourgogne. I also got a hint of a strange tinny note
on the finish. I tried, really tried to like this, but with no
success. B-

2004 Geyerhof "Rosensteig" Grüner Veltliner (Kremstal).
High acid, lemons and minerals. A little sharp by itself, but a good
food wine. B

2006 Borgo M Pinot Grigio (Venezie, I think)
A bit thin and dilute, not much here, but inoffensive. I think Cal got
it on sale for something like $7, ok for that price. B-

To whomever does the maintenance: In the section of recommendations
for restaurants in Sonoma valley, Mixx and Lolo have been closed for a
couple of years...

Please contact me by private email, I may just be in a position to get to
NZ afterall.

Last night I met two of my favorite NYC winegeeks (and one lovely
wife'o'geek) at the midtown Peking Duck House for dinner. A good
dinner, good to great wines, and great company.

We started with the 2001 Muller-Catoir Haardter Herrenletten Riesling
Spatlese, and continued with it through the salt and pepper shrimp.
Nose of citrus and flowers, broad on the palate but with that racy
2001 acidity. I know this was supposed to be the beginning on an off-
period for M-C, but you can't tell it from this bottle. Red fruits,
lime, and peaches, a kind of chalky minerality, this has a long way
to go but is tasty now. A-/B+

Hi,
we'd like to receive your opinion about the possibility to ship a container
from Italy to Far-East in summer period.
Is there somebody that has experience in this sector? Is the wine subject to
alteration?

Thanks for your cooperation.

Neanderthal75

Wine in the garden yesterday.

With pissaladiere and endive tarts:

2006 Thornhaven Gewurztraminer – sweet varietal nose, good fruit in
middle and clean end.

2007 Thornhaven Gewurztraminer – spicier nose, but less happening on
palate, druer rendition. Think I prefer the 2006.

2006 Inama Soave Classico – everything harmonious with this wine,
nothing at all out of step. Lemony clean and tasty. Too bad about the
price locally.

2007 Black Hills Alibi – BC made white Bordeaux blend (about 71%% sauv
blanc, 30%% Semillon). I usually leave these a year or two to mellow
out, but thought I’d try one fresh off the boat…er, bus. Lemon and a
hint of apricot and clean on palate, finishing crisply and very
pleasant now. Will be interesting to see if age adds anything with
this one. sadly, pushing over the $30 mark, I will probably not buy
this again.

With cheese mash and asparagus and a very tasty rib eye roast done on
the BBQ:

WOFW did a feature by Jamie Goode on cellar management software, if
anyone surprised Cellartracker was the clear frontrunner?
http://www.cellartracker.com/WFW20GoodeUnderground.pdf
Congratulations to Eric.

Last month CT added a couple new features:

1) I like the "Favorite Author" feature, which is either new or I just
discovered recently. I've always put MUCH more weight in notes from
people I've tasted with or recognize from posts on various fora, if I
feel I have a sense of their tastes. With wines with dozen+ notes, if
I see a couple are from "favorites", I can concentrate on those more
meaningful (to me) ones.

2) They integrated John Gilman's View from the Cellar. If one is a co-
subscriber, one can view John's notes on wines he's reviewed.
Previously one would have to search the VFTC pdfs ("let's see, was
Mugnier in part 1 or part 2 of the 2004 Burg reviews?"). If you are a
CT user and would like to do a trial subscription, John is offering 2
weeks e-trial. I don't think that gets you the in-depth producer
profile articles, that comes with a full subscription.

After a 7.5 hour Interstate 75 drive I opted for the tasting menu with
wine pairing since I didn't feel like working hard and perrusing a 100
page wine list which is listed on their website. The food was really
quite good:

We started with a glass of Laurent Perrier Brut with an amuse of
chilled cantelope soup. Nice brioche and apple sweetness that went
well with the soup.

Tennessee Padlefish Caviar on homemade potato chip with tradional
garnishes.

2002 Bodegas del Placidio de Fefinanes Albarino Rias Baixas-short,
clean, helped by the caviar to gain some weight. "B-"

Chilled seared foie gras with sour cherry glaze and sheeps milk yogurt

2005 Reichsrat Von Buhl Forster Jesuitengarten Riesling Spatlese Pflaz-
lot's of petrol on the nose. Nice off dry sweetness brilliant with
the foie and cherry glaze "B+"

Roasted Monkfish with Ratatouille

2006 Qupe Marsanne Santa Ynez -Not a good pairing the wine was very
lean and austere and no complimenting flavors were dicernable-I would
have preferred a chard. "C"

Betsy's mom got into NYC, in preparation for a "girl's trip" to DC
with Betsy, Betsy's sister, and niece. We had my mom-in law, sister in
law, and nephew over for dinner Saturday night. Started with a white
bean and garlic scape dip, along with the 2007 Loosen "Dr. L" Riesling
(Mosel). Lighter and lither than a couple recent vintages, this is
bright and an excellent value at under $10. Peach and golden apple, a
little hint of lime. Good length for an inexpensive QbA. I've
generally thought of Dr L as good for the money, but this is just good
without qualifier. B+/B. .

Dinner was grilled lobster, scallops, and shrimp, served with a
grilled zucchini and tomato salad  and a green salad. Dinner wine was
the 2005 Manciat Macon-Charnay Vieilles Vignes. Ripe pear fruit, a
little hint of canned pears, the vanilla aromas don't seem integrated.
I can't find my previous note on this but thought I remembered liking
it, but this comes across like a mediocre CalChard, albeit with more
acidity. I prefer the cheaper straightforward Franclieu cuvee to the
old vines bottling. B-/C+

Nice evening, though humidity and heat drove us into the AC.