Thursday with dry fried Szechuan beef, stirfried asparagus and garlic, and rice, the 2007 Schloss Lieser Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr Spatlese. Lovely, powerful but elegant, sweet citrus, bright apple, flowers, and earth. Excellent length, awake and lively, slately minerality. I'm dismayed to see I committed infantcide on my only bottle, but a very nice effort from a producer barely on my radar. A-
Tonight Betsy used some Yellow Indian Woman beans she had gotten me at Christmas as the base for cassoulet, using bacon, duck legs, and some homemade Champagne sausages (pork and mushroom) from freezer. I eyed a bottle of lesser Cahors, but brought up a Rhone, the 1999 Domaine de Cristia Chateauneuf-du-Pape. Medium red fruit, resolved tannins, a little earth. Hey, what was that- TCA? No, it's alright. Another couple sips, this is a decent CdR masquerading as a CdP. Wait- I thought I got a little damp cardboard again. Not there. Wait, maybe. OK, I reluctantly come to the conclusion this this is mildly corked, just at the threshold of my perception. Too bad.
Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C mediocre. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a party where it was only choice. Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency.