Hi friends –

It’s been a long time – about four months since we’ve last officially posted.  In that time we spent a month in Europe and moved to California and basically re-invented our lives as we knew them.  It’s been an exhausting and exhilarating few months – we admit to being glad that things are slowing a bit from frantic to a dull roar.  We have so many great wine moments to share over this time – it’ll be a while before we get through the highlights, but thought we start out a little more simply.

When the kids were born over 10 years ago, my wife gave me a case of Bordeaux wine, three bottles each of 1996 Pichon Baron, 1996 Leoville Barton, 2001 Brane Cantenac and 2001 d’Issan.  The idea was to open a bottle every year for the kids birthday.  This year we had a bottle of the 2001 Brane Cantenac from the Margaux rejoin of Bordaux.  While we are still exploring and discovering things in the area where we have moved to, we found a nice little “French style” restaurant called Left Bank.  How fitting that we just happen to have brought a left bank bottle of Bordeaux with us for dinner, the 2001 Brane Cantenac.  Most of the 2001 Bordeaux wines that I have had have been open for business and this was no different.

2001 Brane Cantenac, Margaux – Very nice red/black berry fruit on the nose combined with forest floor and a little leather.  In the mouth, dark red bing cherry fruit with a little black berry, spice box, dried leaves, forest floor, slight bit of leather and a hint of dried herbs.  This wine has good acid and a nice smooth mouth feel.  The wine is medium-full bodied.  It has presence and persistence in the mouth, without the weight that you normally find in a new world cab/merlot blend wine.  The wine finishes with a long persistent dark cherry, spice and forest floor finish, with nice finely grained subsiding tannins.  This wine is drinking well today and will continue to do so over the next decade, enjoy them if you have them.  (93pts.)

For those of you looking for a nice Bordeaux wine to drink now, check out the 2001 vintage.  Many of the wines are drinking really well right now and can be had for a song compared to the 2000, 2003 or 2005 counterparts.  The 2001 vintage was really overlooked after the great 2000 vintage, but there are some really wonderful wines to be had – Lynch Bages, Montrose and Leoville Barton just to name a few.

In other great wine moments, for my birthday this year in September, Christina and I wound up at the Village Pub in Woodside California, just north of where we live.  Don’t let the name fool you, they have a REALLY nice wine list and the food is excellent.  The Sommelier at the Village Pub is a very nice and knowledgeable guy by the name of Michael Acheson.  The Village Pub’s wine program was awarded the Wine Spectator’s Grand Award under Michael’s direction.  Michael has a great passion for wine and loves to help patrons explore the world of wine at the restaurant.  We had an excellent meal, unfortunately, the wine I brought for the occasion (2003 Domaine Pegau Cuvee Reserve) was corked.  Maybe I have been lucky, but I bring wine to restaurants all of the time and I honestly don’t remember the last time one of the bottles was corked, maybe 5-6 years ago.  Anyway, Michael was able to guide me through the wine list and offer nice suggestions once we had picked out main courses.  We ultimately had some very nice red Burgundy and Cornas wines with our meal.

During the course of the evening, we talked with Michael about all things wine related and mentioned that we loved Champagne.  Michael said there was going to be a great vertical Champagne tasting of Philipponnat Clos des Goisses, going back to the 1952 vintage from magnum at the Village Pub this October.  This Tuesday night (10/14) is the Champagne tasting and I am really looking forward to it.  Philipponnat is a great Champagne house and their Clos des Goisses is an absolutely wonderful Champagne.  If you like Champagnes that are on the masculine side like from Krug, Bollinger, Pol Roger or Vueve Clicquot then you should try the Champagnes of Philipponnat, and the Clos des Goisses in particular.  Champagne can age really well, but it’s fragile and has to be well-stored.  The oldest bottle of Champagne that I have in the cellar is from the 1975 vintage and it is drinking great (we had a bottle of it not too long ago).  I look forward to seeing what a 1952 will taste like – stay tuned for more…