So yesterday started with a bang- literally, I was awakened by a
mini-explosion, and watching an electric wire arcing spectacularly in
front of house. We lost power (and an hour later a tree from neighbors'
came down and ripped out service line to house anyway). A rather
spectacular storm, but at least I rigged a cord to a neighbor on a
separate grid, and was able to get sump pump going. Whew.

So with no power and Betsy away, David and I dined on supermarket
chicken and salads, by candlelight. I opened a bottle of the 1989 Tayac
"Cuvee Prestige" (Cotes de Bourg). I'd had this a couple times before,
always decent, but this showed much better than previous bottles.
Resolved tannins, some coffee and mocha aromas, rich blackcurrant and
black plum fruit. Really surprising depth of fruit compared to previous
bottles. Sitting in dark by light of laptop (thank goodness for
neighbors with unsecured wireless networks) this could pass for a
midlevel mature Graves or cab-heavy St Emilion. Excellent showing for a
satellite, B+/A-

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.

DaleW wrote:
> So yesterday started with a bang- literally, I was awakened by a
> mini-explosion, and watching an electric wire arcing spectacularly in
> front of house. We lost power (and an hour later a tree from neighbors'
> came down and ripped out service line to house anyway). A rather
> spectacular storm, but at least I rigged a cord to a neighbor on a
> separate grid, and was able to get sump pump going. Whew.

Wow! I thouht of you last night when the Weather Channel ran a story on
the high winds in Westchester Co. Power outages in winter are no fun at
all, especially if it takes some time to restore power. Our welcome to
the Midwest was the ice storm of '90 that took out power city-wide for
nearly 24 hours, with temps hovering around 30 F -- fun!

>
> So with no power and Betsy away, David and I dined on supermarket
> chicken and salads, by candlelight. I opened a bottle of the 1989 Tayac
> "Cuvee Prestige" (Cotes de Bourg). I'd had this a couple times before,
> always decent, but this showed much better than previous bottles.
> Resolved tannins, some coffee and mocha aromas, rich blackcurrant and
> black plum fruit. Really surprising depth of fruit compared to previous
> bottles. Sitting in dark by light of laptop (thank goodness for
> neighbors with unsecured wireless networks) this could pass for a
> midlevel mature Graves or cab-heavy St Emilion. Excellent showing for a
> satellite, B+/A-

Tayac's long been a QPR favorite with us. Glad to hear that this one
showed as well as it did. You could use a bit of good fortune.

Mark Lipton