Deb's birthday- '02 kongsgaard,'00 longoria, '97 tig, '96 dunn and more

i surprised my wife for her birthday (sort of- the confirmation phone call from TFL let the cat out of the bag)- after a 3 hour lunch, we high tailed it home so i could cook dinner for her birthday dinner for 8! we had a many course lunch with an '01 brunel les cailloux and a nice white (no notes as i have an interest in that one)

We finished with dinner at home later that evening- a lobster salad with avocado, mango, tarragon and cilantro and a rabbit ragu over fettucine (fortunately alot of the prep work was done friday afternoon!)- with the following wines:

• 2000 Longoria Chardonnay Clos Pepe Vineyard

  USA, California, Central Coast, Sta. Rita Hills

  Smoky, tropical pineapple, fully mature, nice acidity, and a long finish- this wine is at the end of its life but still wonderful; a nice winecommune pickup for about $9/bottle all in!

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• 2002 Kongsgaard Chardonnay

  USA, California, Napa Valley

  Wow! this is a big wine- it's all about power, minerals, citrus with a touch of nuttiness and big bracing mouthfilling acidity with a little oak- very balanced, crisp, and a big finish- a beautiful wine that is still very young and undoubtedly will improve over the next 5 years or so- great chardonnay.

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• 1996 Dunn Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain

  USA, California, Napa Valley, Howell Mountain

  decanted for about 2 hours; dark red/purple- we had this back in october as well and this confirmed that this to me is probably one of the most approachable young dunn howell mountains ever; beautiful nose, and while still very young with big tannins, the tannins are sweet and long while the fruit dominates- smoky, red and black fruit, a hint of tar or mint; this wine efines big napa mountain cab for me- delicious and complex from start to finish.

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• 1997 Antinori Tignanello

  Italy, Tuscany, Toscana IGT

  I used to have half a case of this wine and have only two bottles left; i drank the other ones way too early!!! This is beautiful sangiovese (i think there is some cab in there too)- a big, lovely wine with hints of oak and forward raspberry red fruit but balanced with nice tannins- this was decanted for about two hours aas well and it is much better integrated than 4 or 5 years ago- very concentrated; long finish.

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