TN: Snowstorm wines (2 Sonoma, 1 BdM, 1 Touraine)

The forecast was for rain Thursday, followed by snow overnight. But the rain was actually snow from the beginning, a heavy wet snow, and roads were as bad as I've ever seen. I told Betsy to stay in Boston. After a day of shoveling and work, I headed home about 4:00 Thursday. It was coming down hard and heavy. Trees came down on nearby streets. More shoveling, putting out warning flares for downed trees, etc. I took a break for dinner as Dave came home. Empty fridge except some leftover blackeyed peas, I raided the freezer to make an Emeril Lagasse recipe of hot dog and pea soup (I had hot dogs, I had peas, I had Food Network). Better than it sounds. Betsy was away, I opened up a red for Dave and a rose for me:

2008 Clos Roche Blanche Pineau d'Aunis (Touraine)
Very pale rose, but light color doesn't mean light flavor. Bright raspberry and strawberry fruit, an appealing pine resin meets oregano herbiness. Clean and refreshing acidity, nice length. B+

2005 Chateau St. Jean Pinot Noir (Sonoma)
Red plum fruit, soft acidity, a slight green notes. With air the green dissipates, fruit shows to fore, but comes across as low-end Merlot rather than PN to me. A bit short. C+/B-

After dinner I went back out to shovel. About 9:30 the fireworks started- transformer blew in front of our house, followed by flashes at nearby insulators. Who hoo, goodbye power (and heat) for our street. Cold night. Big digout Fri AM, work broken by more shoveling. Friday night Dave had dinner with friends, I had Lucy and an extra dog for company (friends making an emergency overnight trip). Leftover CRB was even better, leftover PN was worse.

Saturday Betsy made it home to the cold house, we were invited to
the extra dog's heated/powered home for dinner. Shortly before we were to leave, my heroes arrived- a crew from Cleveland doing emergency repairs. Our power revived, I gave the guys 4 bottles of wine for when they got offduty, and we headed to dinner. Little goat cheese/sundried tomato tartlets, chicken cacciatore, polenta, salad.

1999 Sesti Brunello di Montacino
I had brought up a few hours earlier, but my cellar (usually around 50 in winter) was down to 44, and bringing it to a 50 degree upstairs didn't help much. When we got to Ron's decanted, it was probably still a little cool. But lovely, one of the few recent BdMs I might consider worth it's pricetag ($40). Not a modern style, clean and full black cherry fruit, earth, a bit of saddle leather. Some tannins remain, but resolved enough to not bother me. Good acidity, excellent length, decanter empty too soon. B+/A-

2005 Sebastiani Cabernet Sauvignon (Sonoma)
Straightforward and typical, black plum and berry fruit, a little hint of vanilla, just a bit of tannin, ok acidity. Perfectly acceptable. B/B-

Electricity is your friend!

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.  

Our power revived, I gave the guys 4 bottles of wine for when they got offduty

I feel you pain, Dale, although we didn't lose power just 40" of snow in a week. When our plow driver finally showed up I grabbed several bottles of wine and some bottled water and, with a shocked face he sez that he couldn't take the wine..."did I want him to get fired?" he states. Well, he took the water but not the wine. I guess the out of Staters figured "what the hell".

Drew

in this case, I said "thank you, do you want some wine?". One said, "we can't drink on duty." I said no problem, this is to go for your hotel room. Crew was about 8, I wasn't feeling that generous, but figure at 2-3 glasses per guy.

Dale - you were hit hard by the storm. Luckily, we weren't.

Do you have a problem with pipes freezing, then bursting?

Yikes, had no idea the storm got that bad at your end! We were really lucky, only got a couple of inches - not even enough for any of the campuses to be closed.

Glad you had some good things to eat and drink to enjoy yourselves with during the snow. And yes, electricity is a great thing.

Diane,
luckily (a) it wasn't super cold, lows in mid-20s) and (b)I have gas stove and water heater (old style -pilot and mercury thermostat) so I was able to keep house around 50 (a little more when I was awake, a little less after I've been asleep for hours.

Salil, this was actually maybe worst storm I remember in 19 years in rivertowns. I think we got 20-21, the 96 and '00 storms might have had more, but it was such heavy snow that it caused tons of damage to trees and lines. But it's pretty amazing what a lot of plowing and 2 warm days can do.