Christmas wines

We always start off Christmas with crepes filled with home-made strawberry jam and whipped cream , accompanied by a bottle of Champagne. This year the Champagne was Boillot NV Brut. Nice long-lasting mousse, with apple flavours - not the tart kind, but think of apples sauteed in butter. Rich mouthfeel and good length. The last glass 8 hours later before dinner was every bit as good.

Dinner was roast guinea hen with roast potatoes and brussels sprouts, accompanied by Dominus 1991. Decanted and first tasted after about 30 minutes. Bordeaux for sure, but, wait a minute, the fruit is a bit sweet for Bordeaux. Definite Merlot cocoa showing up in the mouth, but has to be a blend. Mature and elegant with only the sweetest of tannins. Great finish.

By the end of dinner the wine had been open about 90 minutes and was only getting better, showing more concentration, but, strangely enough, the fruit was less Californian. More and more like a top Bordeaux.

No rush to drink our remaining bottles, next one marked down for 2 years out.

[Jenise]

David, Merry Christmas to you and Nadine. As usual, it sounds like no one suffered through the meals at your house--would love to know your source for guinea hen--if you have a local supplier, I'd be thrilled to learn of it.

The Dominus sounds wonderful. '91 has turned out to be a great year for big California reds--not had the Dominus, but I've had a number of others that have and will continue to outperform wines from the two vintages most people consider California's best of that decade, 94 and 97.

-would love to know your source for guinea hen--if you have a local supplier, I'd be thrilled to learn of it.

Jenise, the guinea hen came from Cioffis on East Hastings, 2 or 3 blocks east of Boundary. In the Fall they have them fresh, but at other times of the year they are frozen. Origin is Ontario. Ken C has had both the fresh and frozen and thinks that there is no discernible difference.

We pulled the cork on a bottle of 1994 Fox Creek Reserve Shiraz (McLaren Vale, Oz) made by Sparky & Sarah Marquis during their time at Fox Creek. The cork was saturated; the wine smelled like a vintage port and tasted like cheap patent cough syrup. Dead. It is now clearing the drains at the host's house.