This weekend we opened some very nice wines with dinner to celebrate the
completion of a $2.4M grant proposal to the NIH. Last night, with an
impromptu hash of smoked andouille, red pepper, onion, potato and green
beans, I opened a bottle of:

1999 Dom. de la Tourade Gigondas
nose: bright cherry, some funk, gamey notes, a hint of pepper
palate: lively acidity, still pretty primary, good depth of fruit

This was the non-Parkerized cuveé from Tourade, an import of J et R in
MI. Thoroughly enjoyable, though without as much Gigondas character as
some other producers, and still tasting quite young. It'll be fun to
see where this one goes, but it'll take a while to get there. It
actually stood up quite well to the smoked andouille, which in turn made
the wine seem rounder and fuller than it seemed on its own.


Tonight, with a dinner of lapin à la moutarde and mashed potato/sweet
potato:

1990 Leroy Volnay-Clos des Chênes
n: CORKED!!!
p: not tasted

This was one of the most severely corked bottles we've experienced in a
long while. Since this was our only bottle (a bin-end from an auction
lot), we decided to put to the test a device I'd received last
Christmas: a TCA filter for wine called the Dream-Taste. One hour in
the Dream-Taste and the wine _was_ noticeably less corked, but still
with some cork taint evident. Another 30 minutes and it seemed almost
TCA-free. It was put away for the night, but we'll try it again in a
day or two.

In its place, another bottle from the same lot:

1988 Comte Lafon Volnay-Champans
n: reticent at first, with hints of graphite; after decanting, it opens
up to reveal truffle, raspberry and graphite smells
p: acidic entry, deep raspberry fruit, slightly spicy finish

Because this was our backup bottle, it didn't get any time to air before
dinner. Nonetheless, a bit of quick aeration helped it immensely. This
wine also seemed quite primary still, but delicious. As the meal
progressed, the wine got a stronger and stronger truffle note in the
nose. This is a wine that'll probably get even better in a year or two
(thankfully, I have another bottle of it)l. With the rabbit, the wine
seemed rounder and fruitier -- a 4 on the Hoare scale of food/wine pairing.

Mark Lipton

Sounds like a great dinner (bar the corked wine). Congrats on the
grant. What research is it for, if I may ask?

Salil wrote:
> Sounds like a great dinner (bar the corked wine). Congrats on the
> grant. What research is it for, if I may ask?
>

This one was for developing anthrax anti-toxins. It was a
multi-investigator dealie involving both my wife and myself, hence the
celebrations.

Mark Lipton

Too bad about the Leroy. Still, sounds like a nice evening. I just sent
out 7 grant proposals (but a tiny fraction of the size), will reward
myself with leftover wine!