I invited my uncle Dan and aunt Amy out to help me celebrate my birthday a couple of weeks ago.
I wanted good wine, so I brought a bottle of Joseph Swan Trenton Estate Vineyard, Estate Bottled Pinot Noir, 2003, for which I forked over $40.50 in September '06.
Oh, wow!!
I deliberately got to K&L Bistro in Sebastopol a bit early and asked to get the bottle opened right away. As I expected, it was slow out of the bottle. When Dan and Amy arrived 20 minutes later, it was coming along nicely, and they both liked it.
I ordered steak and Dan and Amy each had seafood. Halfway through the meal, Amy started talking about the wine, and Dan, who was driving, succumbed to temptation and took another tasting pour, which he also thought highly of.
A little slow to open, but after an hour or so, an experience in PN. It opened with cherry fruit, had a mid-palate that was full of earth and boysenberries, but more muted than Zin, and the long finish trailed off into pure grape. Bought at the winery
Sunday evening I cooked a veal chop with braised Belgian endive (a la Franey) and wanted a good bottle to go with it.
The wine was better than the food, and (if I do say so myself) the meal was excellent.
Russian River Valley, Porter Creek Fiona Hill Vineyard, Pinot Noir 2004 $35.00 at the winery in 7/07. 13.5% alcohol
Seriously good RRV PN. Lean, long, ruby color. Not quite up to last week's Swan Estate, but in the ballpark. I'm glad I didn't hurry it.
And the other:
Monterey County, Bargetto, Gewürztraminer 2008 $13.99 BevMo 13.5% alcohol
Forgetto. Nearly undrinkable by itself, not as bad with clam chowder that drowned out everything but the alcohol.
I hope it's good drain cleaner.
John