With pasta with a spinach/mushroom/lemon sauce, the 2009 Loosen "Dr L" Riesling.
A bit sweeter and softer than I remembered, but still a pleasant food friendly
wine. B-/B

Dave and Mary Kate go back to Scotland next week, Wednesday we had her parents
join us for dinner. Yakitori chicken, rice with furikake, broccoli with sesame,
herb salad. A couple of cold roses (it was hot by that grill) and a red

NV Pascal Pibaleau "La Perlette"
Interesting stuff - sparkling Grolleau. Dry, raspberry fruit, an earthy
note. Betsy likes a lot and I'll get more. B

2010 JM Raffault Chinon rose
Cranberry juice! Bold red fruit, sweet fruit but a dry wine, a little
citrus peel. This isn't bad at all, in fact quite tasty, but it's not
the Baudry. B

2007 Tabalí Reserva Especial (Limarí Valley, Chile)
Syrah with some CS and Merlot. Big, fairly prominent oak, popular at
table. This is extremely well made in a modern/internationalist style.
I enjoyed more by itself than with the food. B/B-

Fun night with nice people.

With a crispy duck breast salad over haricots verts, the 2006
Dominique Laurent "Beaumonts" Vosne-Romanee 1er VV. This was a recent gift
from an extraordinarily generous friend. This had big rich fruit, some
spice notes, smoke and to me loads of oak (my friend felt it was less oaky
than most DL wines, but my standards this is oaky). Rich and extracted,
interesting, but to me B+ as "pinot noir", B- as Vosne 1er.

With skate in marjoram brown butter (me) and pasta with green puttanesca
(Betsy, a NYT recipe that used green garlic, spinach, basil, and green
olives as well as anchovies and capers) a couple of wines:

2007 Deux Montille "Boucheres" Meursault 1er
Little oak, but some Meursault fat, ripe pear and apple, a hint of
herb and mineral. Really nice length, has that fatness but some balancing
acidity, just a hint of oak, frsh, quite a nice white Burg. A-/B+

2009 Ulacia* Txakolina
a little spritz, bright green apple and citrus with a clean finish, good value. 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.