TN: 2004 Pepiere, '03 D'Oupia, '92 Cask 23 and 2001 Banfi CCR

After months of reading about the consensus WGWOTW (wine geeks' wine of the year), the '04 Dom. de la Pepiere Muscadet Sevre et Maine Sur Lie, I finally got my hands on some and opened up a bottle with a Thai dinner -- not the best match, but a decent backdrop for the wine

nose: limes, minerals palate: medium weight, crisp, fruity, balanced

Great stuff! I have to familiarize myself more with the smell of crushed seashells, because if there were any here I couldn't tell. Next step is to try this with oysters on the half shell and let it show its stuff (note to Dale: Clos de Briords awaits)

Later on, with a dinner of BBQ "St. Louis" ribs: 2003 Ch. D'Oupia Minervois

n: tart, cherryish fruit, a bit of pencil lead p: good acidity, bright fruit, a hint of bitterness

Worries about '03 wines? No hint of overextraction here! Still fresh with some recognizable Languedoc character, but not overly memorable. (This was a last minute subsbreastution for the '04 Iché Les Heretiques that I'd wanted)

With a dinner of ribeye steaks, I pulled from the cellar:

1992 Stag's Leap Cask 23 c: dark ruby with no sign of browning n: berryish fruit, huge amounts of cedar shading into mint p: medium body, fully resolved tannins, still completely primary, smooth finish

Served blind to Jean (she made me promise not to reveal what she guessed), it was incredibly young tasting but showing no promise of gaining any complexity. A very pleasant, but not profound, wine.

Tonight, with pasta:

2001 Banfi Chianti Clbuttico Riserva

n: ripe cherryish fruit, pencil lead p: medium body, good acidity, ripe fruit