In Tokyo we pretty much stuck to a variety of Japanese places - though
Tokyo has a reputation for excellent places for a variety of European
and Asian cuisines, if you're only there for a week..... The one
exception was our second night, when we went to Lauburu, an excellent
French/Basque spot in the Omontesando area. Quite a nice meal (I'm
going to write up fuller restaurant reports for food/travel fora) -
this place is especially serious about pork, one guy got duck but the
rest of us chose some pork variant- in my case a very good pig's foot
(with mustard under a panko crust). Reasonably priced list of mostly
Southern French wines.

Our first wine was the 2000 La Bastide Blanche "Cuvee Estagnol" Bandol.
List said it was Syrah, but I was certain that it had plenty of
Mourvedre- lots of not-quite-Bretty funk. Rustic but very good.
Blackberry fruit overlaid with cow pasture, roast beef, and mushroom
aromas. Moderate tannins. Very good. B+/A-

Someone said "let's get another bottle of the same", but Joe Bongiorno
and I declared it was against the winegeek code of honor. So next we
tried the 2001 Ch. du Cedre "Cuvee Prestige" Cahors. Smoother and less
tannic than I expected (no shrinking violet, but not the Malbec wall of
tannins that you sometimes find in Cahors), this wine has sweet almost
lush black plum fruit with a note of cherry, some light toasty oak
notes and a easy finish. When we finished it, the chef sent us another
bottle. We enjoyed that one too. As others had dessert, I revisited
this Cahors. With an hour open the fruit had developed a (pleasant)
raisin note to it. 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

Hi Dale,

"DaleW" schreef in bericht:

> Our first wine was the 2000 La Bastide Blanche "Cuvee Estagnol" Bandol.
> List said it was Syrah, but I was certain that it had plenty of
> Mourvedre- lots of not-quite-Bretty funk. Rustic but very good.
> Blackberry fruit overlaid with cow pasture, roast beef, and mushroom
> aromas. Moderate tannins. Very good. B+/A-

I don't think that Syrah is allowed in the AOC bandol.
According to various websites this wine is 85% Mourvedre and 15% Grenache.
So you are right with the Mourvedre.

Regards,

Robèrt

I just did some checking, Syrah is only allowed up to 10%. Bandol rouge
must be at least 50% Mourvedre.

I'm sure that Bandol=Mourvedre must have been lodged somewhere in my
brain, because my varietal tasting discernment is not that good!