Tom and Melody’s wine blog

We are enjoying a mid-week cocktail hour this June evening. Both Tommy and Tony are visiting tonight and I have big dinner plans — which includes the grill — and 10 minutes ago the rain was pouring down. I thought I might need to resort to pizza to save my husband from grilling in the rain, but the rain has stopped and the sky is bright once again. Yay!

This Château Lucière Bordeaux 2005 is one of my favorites. I purchased a case of it recently. It is richly flavored, dry, and tannic with a big, lusty finish.

Our son Tommy is a member of The Ben Daniels Band. The band played at The Blind Pig in Ann Arbor last night. It was just fantastic. We were sitting close to the stage and took some pretty good pictures. Tommy plays the bass guitar. Their music is very good and original.

This French Chateau Fantin Bordeaux is delicious. I ordered a half case of this wine on the recommendation of another red-wine lover. The nose is black fruit and plums. In the mouth is medium to full-bodied structure with a rusty taste mid-palate. The finish has the lovely taste of candied cherries. This wine will stand up to a good steak — which is what we are having for dinner. Tom will grill one steak and then I am going to slice it to serve with steamed brown rice, broccoli and a salad. I think this wine is a winner and I’m glad we have 5 bottles left to enjoy.

Tonight I have a pot roast in the oven with an array of vegetables and a sauce of beer and cream and mushrooms. It smells and looks wonderful.

I chose this Château Les Ragottes Bordeaux 2005 for this dinner. This is a beautiful black in the glass. On the nose is cloves and spice. On the palate it is dry and astringent with hints of blackberry. The finish is medium long with oak and metal.

This is a wonderful French wine; it is not a fruit-forward wine like we are likely to taste from Australia, but it is complex with many layers of metal and fruit. Superb!

Yummy. This La Cour Pavillon 2005 Bordeaux is delicious. A lovely bouquet of cherries and blackberries. This red is silky smooth and tannic. The finale is a spicy chocolate and chocolate-covered cherries.

Today we spent much of our day shoveling the driveway. I took some pictures of the snow while we were shoveling. We have at least 10″ of snow; it was beautiful today!

Tom: This La Cour Pavillon 2005 is a pleasant, fairly light, medium-tannic bordeaux, tasting of cherries and berries. We’re very much enjoying this after several rounds of snow shoveling today!

This Château Moureau Bordeaux 2005 is quite wonderful. I can’t remember where we purchased this wine. Tom thinks it came from one of our wine clubs and he is probably right. (I need to start marking the wines as they arrive, or when we purchase from the store, so I remember.) Nevertheless, this is a delicious red wine. The nose is anise and honeysuckle. On the palate is a balanced quaff with firm tannins and a lengthy finish of redwood and oregano.

We will have this wine with a leftover pot of soup that I made for our pre-Thanksgiving meal: beef-barley soup. This soup is delicious and is the result of several days of preparation — starting with the cooking of a roast, followed by the sauteeing of onions, garlic, potatoes, and carrots, and then adding tomatoes, broth, barley, and, as my son says, “what not”. . . anyway, it makes a yummy soup and that is what we will have tonight for dinner. Cheers!

This Mouton Cadet Bordeaux 2005 is wonderful. It has true tea-like tannicity. The tastes are hints of tobacco and dark fruit. It has the Old World dryness and austerity, but the fruit is still present and delicious.

It’s very drinkable and pleasing. (I have to make a note to get more of this and get Melody’s reaction.)

We have had this La Cour Pavillion Bordeaux Superieur 2005 before and we will have it again. It is a delicious red wine. The color is dark red, the nose is rich berries — perhaps raspberries and cherries. On the palate is fruit - perhaps a bit of syrup, yet it has a smooth texture and good tannicity. The finish is chocolate-covered cherries - but emphasis on the chocolate, not the cherries, in case you are worried this is too sweet. It is not. The balance is less sweet than dry. Yumm.

This Mouton Cadet Bordeaux 2004 consists of a blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Cabernet Franc. I purchased this wine for just under $10. I am enjoying the wine but I can’t, in good conscious, rave about it. The complexity is not what I had expected from a French Bordeaux. It is quite simple, but very drinkable. I have made a beef stew for our dinner tonight and I am not certain this wine will hold up well, but we’ll see. The nose is pleasant but it is not particularly savory. While the taste is lovely, it is not complex. And, finally, the finish is brief.

All in all, this is a highly drinkable wine with absolutely nothing objectionable about it. It is just that it is simple and should be enjoyed as a simple, mid-week quaff.

The label says, “Le vin il nait, puis il vit, mais point ne meurt en l’homme il survit.” (Wine is born, and ages, but it never dies, for it lives on within the drinker.)

We belong to a couple of wine clubs. This La Cour Pavillon Bordeaux Superieur 2005 arrived today from “4 Seasons.” It is always fun and exciting to open the box of wine. I had a feeling I was going to really enjoy this particular wine. I am very fond of French Bordeaux generally, and especially if it has the qualities I enjoy.Well, this one does.

The nose is dark cherries and raspberries. In the mouth it is silky smooth with well-structured tannins. The finish is chocolaty and spicy. Long after the sip is finished I can taste chocolate-covered cherries. Yet, the wine is not overly jammy and is not sweet. My kind of wine! This La Cour Pavillon (The Court House) Bordeaux 2005 is simply wonderful. I am delighted that our wine club shipped four bottles of this!

I can’t brag too much about dinner tonight. I have been so busy at work so all I did tonight was to thaw a batch of chili for dinner tonight. It is simmering on the stove while we read the paper and enjoy this lovely Bordeaux. Although I will make a fresh salad from my garden, it is hardly a meal to brag about!

This Château Michel de Vert Lussac Saint-Emilion 2005, a French blend of merlot and cabernet franc, is a lovely, mellow, and satisfying red wine. We purchased this wine at Trader Joe’s in Ann Arbor for $8.49. This will go well with out dinner tonight. Because it is a dark, rainy, and chilly night in Michigan, and because I have an abundance of ripe tomatoes in my little garden, I have made a cast-iron skillet chili with nothing but fresh ingredients! A little ground beef, garlic, onions, thyme, oregano, tumeric, black beans, cannelli (white) beans, kidney beans, and about six freshly-chopped tomatoes picked right from the vine! It is simmering now while we read the paper, talk, and enjoy our cocktail hour.

This Château Michel de Vert Lussac Saint-Emilion 2005 has a very pleasant nose and a mild taste on the palate. The finish is short but delicious. I think it is fresh — just like the tomatoes. I would purchase this again!

Tom: This Château Michel de Vert Lussac Saint-Emilion 2005 is tannic and tasty. It’s on the soft side compared to some Bordeaux, which makes sense given that it’s 80% merlot and 20% cabernet franc (no cabernet sauvignon). An interesting and delicious wine.