Mark Lipton wrote:
> ...that Jean and I were married. To celebrate our 20th anniversary, we
> exchanged gifts (Jean getting a diamond ring that she'd picked out and
> me getting a double magnum of '89 Veuve Cliquot La Grande Dame, the wine
> that Jean opened to propose to me in '88). We also cooked a dinner of
> mesquite-grilled ribeye steaks, basmati rice, sautéed shi'itakes, sugar
> snap peas and grilled onions, with which we opened arguably the only
> bottle of wine left in our cellar that predated our marriage:
>
> 1983 Ch. Margaux
> color: dark garnet center going slightly brick at the edge
> nose: initially, a bit reticent, cedar, dark fruit, turning more toward
> mushrooms and soy sauce and... dammit... the unmistakeable odor of cork
> taint
> palate: medium body, deep fruit, still fairly primary and TCA
>
> I bought this wine at Garnet in NYC in '88 as a graduation gift for Jean
> the day she defended her Ph D. This bottle followed us from NYC to
> Berkeley to Indiana, suffering at times from less-than-ideal storage
> conditions. The cork was saturated but intact, but the subtle cork
> taint was obvious to me. I asked Jean about it, but she didn't get it,
> so I just put up with it (and for once the cork taint didn't spoil the
> wine entirely). Some day, perhaps, I'll taste an untainted version of
> this wine, but even if not it was a memorable experience. The double
> magnum of '89 Grande Dame will be opened on Saturday during our big
> anniversary party on Saturday.
>

Congratulations to you both, Mark. Just shows the cork taint can't
ruin a good marriage anyway!

Adele and I also chose a spring wedding, our number 22 is coming up
in a couple of weeks. We haven't the ghost of a plan yet, so this
one seems likely to remain low key.

-E