1995 Reserve de la Comtesse - Pauillac - Bordeaux - France

The 1995 Reserve de la Comtesse reminded me of everything I truly love about Bordeaux!

This lovely wine is the 2nd label of Pauillac’s Chateau Pichon Lalande, a revered 2nd growth where the main wine sells for about $100+.

This bottle was bought in Bordeaux on vacation as another way of sampling the solid ’95 vintage at a reasonable price. I believe this was about 20euro at the time where this now sells for approximately $40 in the US for the recent vintages.

As for the wine itself… Elegant and refined. Ruby red with clean notes of smoke and cedar to accompany the dark fruit. Blackberry and currant. Medium bodied. Very nice balance and a caressing medium long finish.

Certainly one of the better wines I’ve had in a while. A-…. Lovely…..

San Fransicso Wine Bars and Writer's Block

The attached link is from a New York Times Travel article this past weekend called “Snobless Sipping: Where a Glassfull is Just a Glassful”. It’s an article about San Francisco wine bars.

Here’s where my writer’s block starts. My wife and I spent our vacation this year in California, a couple days in Los Angeles. A couple of wonderful days in Santa Barbara wine country where we visited several wineries, including Santa Barbara Winery, Brander, Beckmen, Alma Rosa, Sanford, Foley, and Melville. From there we traveled up the California, stopping in Monterrey where we kayaked up the Elkhorn Slough. From there we went up to San Francisco where we spent a full six days, spending plenty of time some of the aforementioned Wine Bars but also a fantastic day in Somona where we had personal tours of Inman Family, Moshin, and Freeman.

My block… I’m not sure where to start. In the meantime, read the article. It’s gives a little taste of the fantastic time we had.

But, I have to say the highlight might have been just seeing and photographing the Sea Smoke Vineyard even if only from a distance... (Below: Not my photo of the Sea Smoke Vineyard but beautiful just the same.)