Third Coast Wine Turns Thirty

Well at least this author does.

I had the pleasure of opening a 1980 Robert Mondavi Reserve Cabernet (note: link is to different year) last night. The bottle was past its prime for sure, but this is the first time I have had a bottle from my birth year, and I hope its not the last. It was a treat to be sure. You can read tasting notes by following the link to the right.

In addition to the Mondavi I found a bottle of 1995 Lagrange on winebid.com. In contrast to the Mondavi, the Lagrange was much too young to have been opened. It took several hours in the decanter, but it finally opened up a bit. Wish I had another bottle to hang onto for another 15 years.

Tonight I'm drinking a nice Macon-Village from Louis Jadot that I picked up at Jewel for less than $10. Its much better than most of the stuff on the shelves at that price. A touch of oak, but nothing outrageous. Good melon and even some grassy sauvignon blanc like notes. I guess I'm hanging onto the fast fading summer, because I've been on quite a White Burgundy kick lately.

To continue with the theme of randomness for the post, I had an interesting time at the Binny's Buffalo Grove French Wine Tasting this weekend. Amongst the sea of wines that weren't very memorable, I found a nice Vouvray and a very interesting white wine that I can't seem t o find a link to anywhere on the Internet. It was some sort of White Rhone wine. Unfortunately my familiarity with the region is not making locating the wine any easier.

There are a few tastings coming up of note. One in Highland Park with over 75 California Reds, another major tasting on November 10 at Binny's South Loop with lots of collectible wines for $40. I'm also planning to attend the ERI pre-auction tasting, which I hope will be a good showing of some really special wines.

If anyone knows how I can get a ticket to the Union Des Grand Cru Tasting in January (I think its trade/press only) I would love to go. Just going to throw that out there in case someone happens to be listening.