Monday Betsy was meeting an old colleague in city for dinner, I had a speech at 7, so asked Dave would he rather have dinner at 6 or 8:30. He chose former, so I just grabbed a pizza. With it a glass of the 2006 Monte Antico (Toscano IGT). Nice pizza wine, red cherry fruit with a little earth. Another glass when I returned home showed a bit of leather, still nice cherry and dried cherry fruit. This has some Bordeaux varieties in it but the Sangiovese dominates, and I wish there were more $8.25 wines like this. B
We're still without power, so Betsy and Dave mostly cooked Tuesday by candle and lantern light. Two recipes from Kylie Kwong- braised tofu with tomatoes, and vegetarian fried rice. While they were cooking we enjoyed the 2006 Old Field Vineyard "Mostly Steel" Chardonnay (North Fork, Long Island). I believe there's 10 or 15 percent barrel-fermented Chard added to the inox base. Nice appley Chard fruit, just a hint of butter, good acidity, good finish. I like this. B
Dinner wine was the 2005 Denis Bachelet Bourgogne rouge. Quite open, with some firm tannins for the level and solid black fruit, with soil and meat notes. Nice, gets better and better with air, quite fine for a basic Bourgogne.B++
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.