2006 Guion Bourgueil Cuvée Prestige
Nice wine. Dark and full flavored with some crunchy herbal notes to remind everyone where it comes from. And plenty of liveliness. Goes down easily and doesn’t inspire much contemplation. At least not while sitting around a table with my family.
2008 Domaine de la Pépière Muscadet
Salty rocky golden fun. No brainer.
2005 Luneau-Papin Muscadet Clos des Noëlles Semper Excelsior
This starts out very seductive with rich fruit and crisp minerals but then it closes up with air and becomes less expressive. Still, it was (very) good while the pleasure lasted!
2007 Occhipinti IGT Sicilia Il Frappato
Fresh bright and high-toned. Something about the candied and glossy overlay didn’t sit entirely well with me, so I kept going back to the Clos des Noëlles. But other folks liked it a lot, even if it was a tough match with shrimp in tomato caper sauce.
2000 Denis Mugneret Nuits-Saint-Georges Les Saint-Georges
A gentle delicate elegant sliver of a wine. An earlier bottle from October showed more depth after airing while this one started to show vegetal notes with too much air. So we had no choice but to enjoy the elegance while it lasted and then move on to something else. Tough life!
2007 Marcel Lapierre Morgon
Juicy joyous gaiety. Although it needs hours of air to fully deliver on those promises. But, it eventually delivers.
1977 Robertson's Rebello Valente Port
A crumbly cork and lots of fine sediment meant that we had to strain this bottle through a tea filter. Afterwards, we were left with nothing but lovely mature port that melted delicately on the palate, went well with a chocolate dessert, and inspired mirth all around. Perfect drinking.