Sunday I grilled a yellowfin steak, cooked some linguine to use up thawed pesto, and warmed all the leftover vegetables in fridge. I chose a N. Rhone Syrah (good choice with the tuna, ghastly with pesto). The 2007 Grangier St. Joseph was a good if unremarkable example- blackberries and black cherry, earth, a bit of wildflowers. I'm not sure that it screamed Northern Rhone, but it had a good balance of tannin, acid and fruit, and no extraneous oaky notes. A bit short, but at $13.50 ($27 at Posner's 2 bottle sale) a fair deal. B-/B
Snowy Monday AM, but Betsy's flight made it in ok. For dinner she made a tomato soup with panfried potato "croutons" and a fennel.citrus gremolata along with a kale and butternut squash dish. Wine was the 2009 Ch. Bonnet (Entre deux Mers) blanc. Very Sauvignon Blancish, though I think that it's a blend of all 3 Bdx blanc grapes. Light, grassy, apple and citrus without overt oak flavors. Fair value at under $10. B-
Betsy was sad reading Pete Wells' last "Cooking with Dexter" column in the NYT mag, but I was happy with the spahgetti and meatballs she made. Wine was the 2007 Cedric Vincent "Pouilly Le Monial" Beaujolais VV. Another (with the Grangier) Kermit Lynch import. Raspberry, cherry, some herbal notes, good balance. Fairly fleshy and structured for straight Beaujolais, but drinking well now and with artificial cork I'd say best to drink up. 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.