TN: Bandol & Cahors with pig in Japan

In Tokyo we pretty much stuck to a variety of Japanese places - though Tokyo has a reputation for excellent places for a variety of European and Asian cuisines, if you're only there for a week..... The one exception was our second night, when we went to Lauburu, an excellent French-Basque spot in the Omontesando area. Quite a nice meal (I'm going to write up fuller restaurant reports for food-travel fora) - this place is especially serious about pork, one guy got duck but the rest of us chose some pork variant- in my case a very good pig's foot (with mustard under a panko crust). Reasonably priced list of mostly Southern French wines.

Our first wine was the 2000 La Bastide Blanche "Cuvee Estagnol" Bandol. List said it was Syrah, but I was certain that it had plenty of Mourvedre- lots of not-quite-Bretty funk. Rustic but very good. Blackberry fruit overlaid with cow pasture, roast beef, and mushroom aromas. Moderate tannins. Very good. B+-A-

Someone said "let's get another bottle of the same", but Joe Bongiorno and I declared it was against the winegeek code of honor. So next we tried the 2001 Ch. du Cedre "Cuvee Prestige" Cahors. Smoother and less tannic than I expected (no shrinking violet, but not the Malbec wall of tannins that you sometimes find in Cahors), this wine has sweet almost lush black plum fruit with a note of cherry, some light toasty oak notes and a easy finish. When we finished it, the chef sent us another bottle. We enjoyed that one too. As others had dessert, I revisited this Cahors. With an hour open the fruit had developed a (pleasant) raisin note to it. B+

Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C mediocre. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a party where it was only choice. Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency