Everyone has been raving about the 2005 Bordeaux vintages -- the warm temperatures and near drought conditions means unripe grapes should be a near impossibility -- and I think they're right. Over the weekend I had a remarkable bottle of the 2005 Chateau Beychevelle (fourth growth; Saint-Julien). I'd had an earlier vintage at a wine tasting and it had been pleasant, but nothing to write home about. The '05 is a very different animal. It's complete beginning to end with a great nose and a strong finish. It is however, worth decanting before serving. The critics seem happy with it as well. Parker scored it a 90-92 and said it might be the best Beychevelle since 1982. Unfortunately, the price reflects this quality. While earlier vintages have been in $40 range, this is not true of the '05, which is going for closer to $90 at some places. But it seems that, this year, Bordeaux is worth it.

Comments: 10 Posted by david on 27 November 2007 at 2:48 PM

If you've ever considered investing in a well stocked wine cellar, this article from the New Yorker should serve as a cautionary tale.

The long and short of it is that buying wine that is more than 100 years old is a lot like gambling. Much of what even the experts "know" about older wines may be based on fraudulent tastings. And because no records exist for wines produced very long ago, there is not much that can be done to truly authenticate a bottle. Which leaves us trying to do so based on tastings, which even in the best of conditions would be rather tricky. But given the uncertainty surrounding some of the basis tastings that experts have gone to, even that is not particularly useful. So, caveat emptor should be your motto when buying those eighteenth century grand crus.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 8 November 2007 at 8:21 PM

My mom saw the NY Times wedding announcement for Wilhelmina Slater and Bradford Meade in the paper today. She thought it was fairly odd that they had to pay for a wedding announcement given their extensive resumes and read it out loud to us. Fortunately, I was able to clue her in on the fact that these were characters from Ugly Betty. But the request to visit abc.com at the end of the announcement probably should have given her a hint about the falseness of this particular wedding announcement.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 4 November 2007 at 7:45 PM

I'm thinking that it might be time to trade in my car. My Escape has served me well, but it seems to be spending a lot of time in the shop these days, which makes me reluctant to keep once my warranty expires in a few months.

I'm thinking that I want something that still has some decent storage capacity, like my Escape, but I don't want to deal with the poor mpg I get from my Escape. My original thought was to get a hybrid SUV, but the only one in the size I'm interested in is the Escape hybrid, which seems too much like keeping my current car. So now I'm looking at standard cars with decent fuel economy. I test drove the VW GTI last weekend because a guy at work recommended it to me, but I probably need to look at some more options before I make up my mind on this.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 2 November 2007 at 8:33 PM