56

[stefan]

Yesterday Lucie and I celebrated our 56th anniversary by ourselves at home after a less than stellar dinner out the night before. We began with a late breakfast of scrambled eggs and fruit and 2009 Dom Perignon. Coming after the legendary 2008 vintage, hype for the 2009 Champagne was muted. However, at age 15, the Dom is a very good mature Champagne, with a fine mousse and fruit on brioche that lasts. For drinking now I prefer the soft tasting 2009 to the still acidic 2008 even if the 2008 is destined to be one of the all time great Doms.

In the evening we had seared duck breasts with a mixed wild mushroom sauce. 2002 Haut-Brion was a great match for the duck. It has all the usual attributes of HB, including the long finish, without the intensity of the great vintages that would have overpowered the duck and mushrooms. The strong tannins in the Haut-Brion suggest that the 2002 will live quite a long time.

[JimHow]

Wow! Two of my favorite wines with two of my favorite people.
Happy anniversary!
See you soon in DC!

[SF Ed]

I like to hear good things about the 2002 Haut Brion. Lisa and I have only been married for 22 years so that's our anniversary vintage. I've found that 2002 Bordeaux are remarkably approachable, even ones like Latour that usually take forever to be ready.

SF Ed

[Jay Winton]

Congrats! 89 was our year and I've heard it was ok in Bordeaux.

[DavidG]

Congratulations, sounds like an excellent celebration!

[Nicklasss]

Happy anniversary to two of the nicest persons.

Excellent wines to celebrated.

Not long ago, a friend opened 2 bottles of 2002 Meyney and they were excellent. Great balance and great fruit still.

[JCNorthway]

Congratulations on 56 years! And a very nice celebration.

[Comte Flaneur]

Congratulations stefan and lucie. Good choice of wines to celebrate your milestone. We are drinking Haut Brion tonight by coincidence

[stefan]

Thanks, guys.

Last night we had a couple of younger friends over for dinner and went through several good wines. We started with our last bottle of 1999 Billecart-Salmon Cuvee Nicolas Francois Billecart. I am sorry to see that go. With lamb chops we drank 2000 Leoville-Poyferre and our last bottle of 1996 Leoville-Barton. The Poyferre is a solid wine in the modern style, but it was blown away by the precise Barton. All four of us loved the LB. We finished with a nectarine compote and 1989 Suduiraut, which always is a pleasing end to a dinner.

[DavidG]

Mmmmm, 1996 Leoville Barton. Drank our last one 2 years ago and had similar thoughts: why didn’t we buy more of this?

[Claudius2]

Stefan
Congratulations from Singapore - 56 years is quite an achievement.
Cheers
Mark

[s*d*r]

Congrats.

[JeanFred]

56! Congratulations

Glad to see both of you again in october…

JeanFred