TN: Mascarello sings, PavieMac trails

Our good friend Joe invited us to dinner Tuesday night to meet his new love, who was visiting from Amsterdam. I made a quick stop by a early Thanksgivng dinner for the homeless my group helps sponsor, then we headed to city. As our coats came off a glbutt of the NV Nino Franco "Rustico" Prosecco appeared for each of us.

Nice lighter-styled bubbly, clean green apple fruit with a hint of yeast and flowers, pleasant and easy to like. B

The other guests arrrived, and we had nice conversation over the prosecco and a first course of Iberian ham, wild boar proscuitto, and marinated fennel.

Next course was squid ink risotto topped with crispy cod (from Le Bernardin cookbook). Joe had asked me about a match for squid ink, I was a bit at a loss but thought his dry Chenin idea sounded good. He had recently gotten from Garagiste some bottles of the 2004 Patrice Colin V.V. Coteaux du Vend=F4mois. I tried to like this wine, and tried to identify it as Chenin. In neither case was I successful. This had a peculiar herby quality, tarragon meets Indian spices. Good acidity, & I really thought I SHOULD like an organic old vines Chenin, but this just didn't do it for me. Give me Savenni=E8res any time. C+

I did love the dish, though. The main course was rocking too- squab in puff pastry, accompanied by braised vegetables. We had a pair of Nebbiolos with this:

1993 Poderi Colla "Tenuta Roncaglia" Barbaresco My contribution. Medium-bodied, nose of roses and a little tar. Medium raspberry fruit, some pepper, earth, and smoke on finish. A pretty nice Barbaresco, but paled next to it's flightmate- just not the concentration. A B-B+ still.

1989 Bartolo Mascarello Barolo Moderately tannic (less than I expected, actually), intense nose of spice, violets, tar, & red fruit. Dense and long on the palate, rich concentrated black cherry fruit.Young, but offering a lot of pleasure right now. Nice balance of acidity, tannins,and fruit. A

The cheese course came next, along with Chris's bottle of 1990 Pavie-Macquin (St Emilion). Dense black and red currant fruit with that slight hint of roasted fruit that can characterize the '90s, some leather and cedar on the nose. Nice finish, would have been WOTN except for that damned Mascarello. A-

Debbie had brought a dessert of chocolate "minks" (I don't eat dessert, but it was described as in-between pudding and souffle), plus Joe had made a quince pudding. The dessert wine was the 2002 Feiler-Artinger Traminer Beerenauslese. Sweet without being cloying, very floral and with a hint of earth. Apricot and candied oranges, a very nice BA. A-

Fine evening, with old friends and new. Great food, great wine, great company. The only thing that wasn't great was a 6 hour dinner the night before a trip! =20 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