TN: Friulian Merlot with mediocre Turkish food, plus a fair 04 MSR QbA

TN: red wine season begins
Despite unseasonably warm weather this past month, the leaves have changed color, the skies have clouded and the red wine has been brought forth from the...

Sediment and decanting
Jose Sediment from red wines can taste bitter to many people. This is most likely to be noticed for full red wines with harsh tannins that require some age to...

iso88591qRe:_Oldest_wine_you=B4ve_ever_bought=3F
Nils Gustaf Lindgren as e=2E ht? is, 7, - All of my older wines were bought at auctions many years ago before the price of many such wines climbed into the stratosphere. The...

Friday Betsy had a rare weekend night off, and we declared it date night. She usually has to drag me to weekend night movies (I hate the crowds), but I surprised her by taking her to a 5:50 show ("Capote", excellent!) which wasn't crowded, THEN to dinner. I took her to a Turkish place with a good rep, and we had a so-so meal (good appetizer of feta in phyllo, but mediocre renditions of various lamb & grilled meat, and dull baba ganoush). Wine list had nothing exciting, but I ordered a 2002 Livio Felluga Merlot (Friuli) as I had liked his whites before. Dull flabby red, sweet red plum fruit, little distinctiveness. Some light oak. We left half the bottle. I know 2002 was a rough vintage in parts of Italy, but never heard there were problems in Friuli. Vintage, or wine? C-C+

Saturday I went into city with Betsy. I watched "The Mines of Sulphur" while she played (I'm no huge fan of atonalism, but this was great, as the dissonance of the music set the mood for the Gothic opera). Afterwards we walked into Central Park to visit a friend, then went to her new favorite yakitori place (Yakitori Totto, like being in Tokyo, highly recommended to anyone in NYC). I just had a Kirin there, then headed home while Betsy played evening show. When I got home, I felt like a glbutt of wine, and opened the 2004 Dr. Thanisch (Erben-Thanisch) Riesling QbA (MSR). Nicely balanced base-level Riesling, slate and flowers on the nose, nice canned pear fruit (I'm serious, I actually think it was good, yet reminded me of the canned pears my mom used to fill with cottage cheese in my Good Housekeeping =A9 childhood). Not bad at all, if a little lacking in concentration. Two nights later it's a little less zippy than my preference, but still decent for the level. 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. =20

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