Thanksgiving 2022, Day 1

[stefan]

Happy Thanksgiving to BWEers everywhere from the stefan clan.

Day 0

I arrived in Eugene Tuesday on a very expensive coach ticket to join with Lucie, who came on Monday on a low mileage business class award ticket. The savings on Lucie's ticket enabled me to buy a case of wine on Wednesday that included the last bottles of 2005 Pichon Baron and 2008 La Grande Dame and 2016 Maillart Jolivettes Brut as well as a bunch of lesser Champagnes that looked interesting.

Lucie had a terrible cough (not Covid; she tested), so I took the long trek (2 minutes if the light is red) to stefanJr's for Taco Tuesday and sJr's Tequila branch water concoction. Afterwards we pulled a 2007 (or maybe 2005) Doisy Vedrines. I have never been disappointed in a bottle of this under the radar Sauternes, and this one kept the string going. It is very minerally and tastes of sugared peaches. The botrytis had Irena sneezing on her first sniff.

Day 1

Lucie, feeling a bit better, prepared her usual day-before-Thanksgiving minestrone. At one time we would have around 30 people at our house for Turkey Weekend, but this year only long time friend Sambo and his partner, Morning Glow (who does not drink), came from Seattle. With various cheeses and the minestrone we drank

2017 St Innocent Temperance Hill. Before the others arrived Lucie approved the TH, "I like it; it will go well with the minestrone". I think the wine is nice enough, but it is not as forward or as expressive as it was a year ago, and I get no volcanic ash overtones. It tastes of tart cranberries. Sambo agreed with me when he started drinking it, "Minerality, but no volcanic ash". Later he adds, "more fruit now than on the first taste", and I agree. stefanJr vocalizes my thoughts, "it's a little dumb now", but he detects some volcanic characteristics. sJr 90-91 Sambo 89 stefan 89++ Lucie 90 Irena 87. stefanJr explains that his rating is based on potential and Sambo says he rated for drinking now. My rating is for drinking now, and the ++ means that I expect considerable improvement.

2019 Domaine Drouhin Dundee Hills. It had been a year since I drank this 2019 DD and I wanted to see how it was developing. Surprisingly, the grapes are blacker than those in the SI Temperance Hill. Not surprising is that the tannins are coarser. "For drinking now, I prefer this to the Temperance Hill, but that does not mean that I like it more". I agree, but the TH should pass it down the road. Sambo says, "More developed and slightly stronger than the Temperance Hill". I note that the dark fruit strengthens with oxidation. stefanJr 89 Lucy 91 stefan 90 Sambo 90 Irena 90.

With the soup almost finished, we decided to try something very different.

1983 Canon. I forgot to ask stefanJr to bring over the Durand I gave him for Xmas years ago. Using a waiter's corkscrew I broke the cork at the bottom and could not get it all out, so I decanted the wine. "Lots of tobacco," says stefanJr. There are red raspberries mixed in with the tobacco. I say, "the fruit is OK, the tannins are still firm, and the tertiary characteristics are nice. But I think this was better 10-15 years ago". "Yes, it is old with faded fruit", stefanJr adds, "but I like the tobacco". stefan 88 stefanJr 90 Sambo 90 Irena 88

stefanJr was feeling bad and went home early without even finishing his Canon. The other kids, having gotten old, opted not to drink any more, so we called it a night.

[Blanquito]

I love Thanksgivings with the Stefans, even vicariously it is one of the highlights of the holiday.

[jckba]

Fully agree and really enjoy seeing the family ratings.

[Nicklasss]

Me too, the stefan family Thanksgiving report is one of my favorite moment of the years. You never know how many days long it will be...

[stefanJR]

Spoiler alert: We redeemed ourselves on Thanksgiving Day 2...

Happy Thanksgiving, BWE!
-StefanJr

[JimHow]

Happy Thanksgiving StafanJR!

[DavidG]

Happy Thanksgiving Stefan(s).
Hope Lucie is all better.
Yes, airfares have, umm… taken flight?!
In typical Stefan fashion, he finds a way to turn this into a reason to buy more wine. Well done!

[Claret]

Nice to see a note on St Innocent Temperance Hill. I had the 11 recently and while enjoyable and developed, it was clearly a product of the cool vintage with some of the green stuff I sometimes get from Temperance.