Last Bottle

I suppose it should be sad when the last bottle of a particular wine is consumed, but when a wine is as good as a 1997 Staglin Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon it's hard to be sad while the drinking is in progress.

Dark cherries, tobacco and leather aromas were strong.  They flowed on into the taste with the added benefit of coffee and dry earth.  Well balanced and rich without being over the top in any way.  A treat to drink, and the rack of lamb with an herb crust certainly added to the mix. 

2007 Staglin Family Vineyard Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon.  13.8% alcohol and $200.

Summer

What is one to say about June, the time of perfect young summer, the fulfillment of the promise of the earlier months, and with as yet no sign to remind one that its fresh young beauty will ever fade. ~Gertrude Jekyll

Wildflowers blooming on a hillside during a walk this morning.

Amazing

I love Chablis.  After one sip of this 2007 Gerard Tremblay, Domaine des Iles Grand Cru Vaudesir I was tempted to not share.  I thought of excusing myself and running off to another room with the bottle and my glass.  I stayed and shared, but only because there is another bottle in the cellar.

The brashness of youth was gone here and the wine matured into something different.  The color had changed to a light golden hue with time in the bottle.  The aromas were still citrus and wet limestone.  There was great depth of flavor, mature and not totally youthful.  But it was unmistakably a Chablis.  The citrus flavors and the minerality were really prominent.  The finish was long,  flavorful and bone dry at the very end.  With a lobster salad and some pan roasted diver scallops it was remarkable. 

2007 Gerard Tremblay, Domaine des Iles Grand Cru, Vaudesir.  13% alcohol and $80 a few years ago.

Heaven Sent

At long last there are no more medications to interfere with the consumption of moderate alcohol.  There are no more medications that destroy the taste of most foods.  There are only happy times ahead and some of the bottles in the cellar that I have stared at with virtual lust are now back in play.

The first one opened was a 2008 Schloss Gobelsburg Gruner Veltliner Tradition from Austria.  Its selection had most to do with with the fact that it was the first one my hands touched.  With some soft shell crabs it was outstanding.  Six years in the bottle mellowed the wine but the edges were still sharp and tart.  Great depth of flavor suggesting green grapes, apples and summer.  Amazing length to the finish.  It took three days to finish the bottle and each day the wine was outstanding.  The crabs were sweet and spicy with a ginger and lemongrass dipping sauce and the Asian flavors were perfect with the wine.  Happy, happy, happy!

2008 Schloss Gobelsburg Gruner Veltliner Tradition Kampatal Reserve.  13% alcohol and $45.

Promises

We're still inching along here but a final recovery (hopefully) appears to be happening.  It is just flat out terrible to have no sense of taste, and often the cure is as bad as the problem. Most of the medications stopped two weeks ago and almost everything I put in my mouth now tastes wonderful.  Each day things taste better. 

The only silver lining is the weight loss.  I no longer will have to hear my primary care doctor suggest that losing five or ten pounds would be a good idea.  My total weight loss since this began in early November is now 45 pounds. 

There have been a few sips in the past week of some very nondescript wines and they tasted very good.  There is a lineup of much better wines that I plan to start opening shortly and I suspect I will find them among the best I've known.

The photo was taken from the front porch after a recent evening storm.