After much hemming and hawing, I had settled on an old Tempier Bandol to go with our mock porchetta yesterday. But after a fruitless search through the wine fridge, I decided that I must have misremembered bringing it home from storage, so we went with what proved to be a delicious plan B: a Domaine Georges Roumier 2002 Chambolle-Musigny. (I think there's also a 1er-designated village wine, but this wasn't that.)
A dozen years ago, I'd bought a couple of these and a few of Roumier's basic Bourgogne, intending to drink them sooner than this, but lost track of one of each until a recent cellar reorganization. The Bourgogne was very good, but this was even better. At first, it seemed out of balance, with the modest anise-laced cherry fruit outweighed by a tarry and then drying astringency on the finish; but as it unwound, everything fell into place, producing a wine of deep, dark fruit notes, complex savory accents, and a long, pure, sustained finish. Delicious!
Before dinner, we had a couple of glasses of the Long Meadow Ranch 2016 Napa Valley Chardonnay "LMR/Farmstead" with cheese. I remain impressed by the QPR here (I think I paid somewhere between $20-22 for this), and what I appreciate about it is that it's not too much of anything; the fruit is ripe enough to show tropicality, but only a little; there's acid cut and also richness, but in proportion; and there's the barest bit of perceptible oak on the finish. It doesn't taste like anything other than what it is -- it's obviously California Chardonnay -- but it's not a pumped-up or tarted-up cartoon of itself, either.
Nothing with dessert (my first homemade apple strudel!).
Hope everyone who celebrated yesterday had a happy Thanksgiving!
