Deluge

Mild weather yesterday evening between periods of rain so the grill was fired up for two medium lamb chops with a side of fresh pasta with mushrooms and leeks. Nice meal.

The wine was a Clos La Coutale Cahors. Berries and cherries dominated the nose, along with just a whiff of fresh rain on gravel. The wine is 80% malbec and 20% merlot. Medium weight, not a huge wine, and not at all like some of the Argentine malbecs in the market here. This is definitely old world and checks in at a modest 12.5% alcohol. The fruit was strong in the taste without being overwhelming and there just enough tannin to make things work. A pleasant dose of acid and minerals on the finish made this a great buy at $14. It's a Kermit Lynch selection, so being good is almost a given.

The fresh rain on gravel came back overnight as we saw about 3+ inches of rainfall, and it is still raining. Indoor cooking this evening, though the forecast promises a truly great weekend with temperatures Saturday reaching the upper 60 degree range.

Last fall I went to an Italian tasting that featured three barolos, three brunellos and three barbarescos. I love good wines made from sangiovese but the three brunellos, which are supposed to be 100% sangiovese, were my least favorites of the tasting. Reviewing my notes from the tasting I described them as overdone and clumsy and not tasting like sangiovese.

This morning Eric Asimov in the New York Times has an interesting blog column on a developing scandal in brunello about some top producers being indicted for adding other grape varieties to their wines. Here is a direct link to the article, and Eric includes several more links to other sites discussing this. As it turns out my least favorite wine of that tasting was the Antinori. The group rated it high, but I didn't think it tasted at all like sangiovevse. Antinori was one of the wineries accused of"doctoring" their wines by the Italian authorities.

This seems like a good scandal to follow since it smacks of dishonesty on the part of these producers.