Tonight's dinner started off with some Morbier cheese that I'd bought a while ago, served on crackers. Jean decidedthat an aperitif was called for, so she opened a bottle of Jurançon that a French student of hers had given her some time ago:
2002 P. Bordenave Jurançon "Harmonie"
color: dark golden-yellow
nose: citrus and honey
palate: sweet entry, good acidity, grapefruit, honey, clean finish
We weren't sure how sweet this Jurançon would turn out to be, so we'd been putting off opening it with food. However, the Morbier (au lait cru du haut-Libradois) turned out to be an inspired match with the wine: with the cheese, the wine seemed crisper, its flavors more defined and the sugar was less noticeable.
With a simple dinner of roast chicken, orzo and chard sauteed with garlic, Jean served me a wine blind:
color: dark purple with bricking at the edges
nose: vegetal, a hint of mushrooms and very little fruit, alcohol
palate: thin, acidic, vegetal with a noticeable lack of fruit
Jean and I were both a bit put off by this first impression. She suggested that maybe decanting would help, so we splashed some into a decanter. Indeed, there was less vegetal character to it and more fruit in evidence after the decantation. When asked to guess what it was, I feebly offered up a guess of a 10-year old CalCab (though the high acidity certainly had me second-guessing that choice). In the back of my mind, I was thinking "I did have to open my big mouth about having had so few heat-damaged wines -- this one probably got cooked somewhere." When Jean told me that it was 7 years old and from France, I revised my guess to a Cotes du Rhone with substantial Syrah content. With this, I got closer and she revealed the wine:
2000 A. Belle Crozes-Hermitage "Les Pierrelles"
nose: by now, a bit spicy, with plummy black fruit
palate: medium body, good acidity, briery, black fruit
Very odd beginning with all the vegetal notes, but they did eventually blow off to reveal a nice wine. Certainly not profound, but a very decent Syrah from the N. Rhone. Now, 3 hours later, the wine is still very much alive.
Mark Lipton
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