TN: Jamet Cusimano Haut-Batailley Raymond-Lafon

Had our first normal dinner for a year and a half with two friends, outside in their garden. They picked up a dinner ‘kit’ from a local French restaurant and we relaxed and tasted a number of wines.

2010 Averill Creek Brut – this is a BC wine from Vancouver Island, made from 50/50 pinot gris and pinot noir. It is a white bubbly that is barrel fermented and aged and it was quite pleasant with a nice yeasty nose, a bit of colour and fairly full body. Good acidity. A ‘younger’ area for BC winemaking and obviously hitting stride.

2020 Gneiss Rosé – another BC wine from the south Okanagan. Pale colour, subdued nose, vaguely slightly off dry impression, though balanced. The decline to say what grapes were used. Nothing special but nothing particularly wrong with it either. (A weaker man might have opined that it was a pretty gneiss wine).

2018 Domaine Lafond Roc-Epine Tavel – soft balanced wine with a very slight bitterness in the finish, but decent and with good terminal acidity.

2017 Jean-Luc Jamet Côtes du Rhône Couzu Blanc – wet stone nose and some light melon notes, good fruit, decent length. At $50 priced too high.

2018 Cusumano Etna Alta Mora Bianco – deeper coloured white wine with a very interesting nose of citrus and wet stone along with hints of tropical fruit or melon I couldn’t quite lay a descriptor on. A clear step above the previous whites.

1982 Château Haut-Batailley – my contribution, and this Pauillac had been in my cellar since release. Still fairly dark with a lovely nose of aged oak and cassis, plummy and with some spice. Rich and spicy on palate as well, mellow and long. Excellent claret in perfect shape. No changes over an hour plus. Should have bought more (down to two left).

2002 Château Raymond-Lafon – half bottle of Sauternes to finish. Rice pudding nose with honey and nutmeg, Quite sweet but well balanced, decent and enjoyable though nothing profound, Great end to a memorable evening.

[David M. Bueker]

Just curious - did it feel like it had been forever, almost as if you forgot how to be together, or was it as if the last 16 months had barely existed? We went to a party a few weeks ago, and it was so “as if nothing had happened” that it was surreal.

Bit of both. We had an unconscious impression that drew us up once in awhile thinking 'should we be doing this? until we realized that it was OK now. And although we wore no masks, (as is the case with my lunch group), we did sit as far removed from each other as we could just out of habit.

Just curious - did it feel like it had been forever, almost as if you forgot how to be together, or was it as if the last 16 months had barely existed? We went to a party a few weeks ago, and it was so “as if nothing had happened” that it was surreal.

I haven't done anything social where the form is completely the same as before the pandemic. But in our attempts to transition, my university department had our year-end party outdoors. In many ways it was the same, but there was actually so much energy and excitement at all being together. After a year plus of gathering outside in small groups, having 40-50 people together gave such a surge of energy!