Day 1: Light golden-green colour. A little quiet on the nose at first,
but opening out with time to show apple, minerals and flowers with
some faint petrol notes. Gorgeous on the palate and much more open -
medium bodied, slightly sweet and very elegant with plenty of acidity,
more flavours of apple, white fruits and minerals with a long clean
finish.

Day 2: Much more forward on the nose with a really intense minerally
character. Similar flavour profile on the palate, but it just seems so
much more seamless with the minerality, bright fruit flavours,
sweetness and acidity all integrating together much more smoothly and
a tremendous long fnish. Outstanding. Makes me want to run out and buy
more - or just open the Zeltinger Sonnenuhr one-star Spat I've also
got sitting around.

Cheers,

Salil

I've mentioned in the past that I've had excellent look with the
offshoot of Woot.com called Wootwines (wine.woot.com). The concept of
Woot is a daily offering of a single remarkable bargain. The usual is
something in electronics like a flash drive, a USB gizmo, an MP3
player or similar. Limited quantity, first come-first served starting
at midnight until sold out.

The wine site doesn't turn over as rapidly. Typically it is one
offering a week. Usually it is a three bottle (occasionally four)
package for about $40-60. Usually American wine. My experience has
been excellent. Occasionally I've been happily surprised to see an old
favorite winery featured (Fife and Schug, for example), but more often
I get introduced to something new and the discoveries have never been
duds.

The most recent gee whiz experience was an excellent Pinot Noir from
Sadler-Wells winery. The PN from 2005 was packaged with two bottles of
a Cabernet Sauvignon from 2003--three bottle bundle for $50. All three
wines are Sonoma Coast bottlings.

Has anyone had Brundlmayer Sekt Brut 2002 (Kremstal, Austria) or read
a review of it? I have located some at about US$32 per bottle and have
never had a quality Austrian sparkling wine. I know Brundlmayer is one
of the top producers of several Austrian wines and has a good
reputation in general for Sekt. However I know nothing about the
specific Sekt I mention here. While much Sekt exported from both
Germany and Austria in the past was at best a cheap commercial wine,
there have long been a few very good examples that often are difficult
to find in many countries.

This is a weekly reminder that the FAQ for this group resides at the website
http://winefaq.hostexcellence.com. Additionally, it is posted monthly
to the newsgroup alt.food.wine. Questions or comments about the FAQ are best
posted to the newsgroup itself.

Table of Contents:
1. I have just found a bottle of wine in my parents' cupboard and...
1a. I want to know how much it's worth
1b. I want to know whether it's OK to drink
1c. Will it taste good?...

In article mailhub227.itcs.purdue.edu>, notpil@eudrup.ude
says...

Tasted last week. Prices in $OZ
Cheers!
Martin

Tyrrell's Old Winery Hunter Valley Semillon 2007 - $11. Lemons and straw on
the nose. Light (10.5%% alcohol) fresh style with attractive ripe citrus
flavours. An ideal lunch and entr

Opera rehearsals started Tuesday, I volunteered to cook dinner last
couple of nights. Then realized that Tues I had busy afternoon,
followed by an early evening speech at a synagogue to some kids.
Crockpot to the rescue! I realize some look down on slow cookers, but
they come in handy in situations like this. Late morning I went back
to house, browned a roast, then threw ingredients for pot roast in
slow cooker. See you in 10 hours. When I got home, Betsy had made a
salad, quick sauce from the roast and we sat down to dinner and the
2005 d'Oupia  "Les Heretiques" (VdP de l'Hérault). Still edges the
Borsao as my favorite under $8 red. Juicy red fruit, not complex but
well defined, ripe without any hint of flabbiness. Some herb and
earth, very good wine for the price. B+/B

Tonight I made shrimp in a curry-ish sauce (onions, pepper, mint,
cumin, turmeric, coconut, etc) along with baby artichokes fried with
lemon. Wine was the 2004 Boxler Edelzwicker Reserve. Floral, some
lychee, a little honey and almond. Seems just a touch off-dry, a
little short, not a thrilling wine but does as well with a pair of
complicated matches as any wine I could think of. B

The Boxler a decent value, the Iche a super value.

Several nights ago, with a light dinner, Jean opened a bottle that I had
placed in the "drink soon" rack. Tonight, with the leftover duck
salmis, I returned to the bottle after 3 days:

2005 Baudry Chinon "La Croix Boisée" ($21.99)
nose: meaty, dark fruit
palate: rich, dark plum fruit, forest floor, pencil lead, high acidity,
fine tannins

Even after 3 days, the fruit is still vibrant, but there are more
secondary elements. Very nice with the duck and a wine with a long
future ahead of it.

Mark Lipton

Last night Betsy combined two Judy Rodgers recipes, the roast chicken
with bread salad, and a recipe for chicken salad with arugula, olives,
and yellow pepper. The suggested wine for the latter was a 1999 Joguet
young vines Chinon*, I brought up a bottle of the 2004 Bernard Baudry
"Les Granges" Chinon. Served cool, straight from cellar. Bright
acidity, black raspberry fruit, light tannins, a little barnyard. As
it warms and gets air it fills out a bit, more black plum fruit, the
merde notes light and in background, a little note of green pepper.
I'm surprised when Betsy says she likes a lot, as she tends to hate
green pepper (in wine or otherwise), but she does- this is just a
hint, not an overpowering greenness. Nice welterweight, very food
friendly, tasty. B+

On Saturday, our dinner started with a bottle of a recently purchased
Champagne:

NV Larmandier-Bernier Blanc de Blancs 'Vertus' ($42)
nose: mildly yeasty, lemons
palate: creamy, citrus, crisp, leesy

Really nice stuff with a great balance of acidity with fruit and yeast
autolysis flavors.

Tonight, a friend was in town, so with some Thai food we opened:

NV Foreau Vouvray Brut (L2011) ($24)
nose: grapefruit rind, herbs
palate: light mousse, crisp, balanced, citrus, green apples

Classic Chenin notes to me, even if I can't find the words to describe
them. Although officially NV, the lot number designates it as a 2001
single vintage wine. The more I taste sparkling Chenin, the more I like
it. Great stuff!

Mark Lipton