Dinner for four, three wines, at our local Italian restaurant. It's BYO, so the wine list is as big as all outdoors, or something. Being prepared for anything, I brought the following: 1993 Viognier Domaine de Gargazaud (Pays d'Oc) 1990 Ferrari-Carano Chardonnay 1988 Tenuta Trerose Vino Nobile de Montepulciano I've never had a Condrieu, so I really can't comment on what Viognier really ought to be like; but if it's like this, I'll have some more. All kinds of fruit I can't quite put my finger on (or, more precisely, they're at the tip of my tongue); and for under ten bucks, I'm impressed. That got us through ordering, munching bread, and into the first courses. The Chardonnay that followed was like a Mack truck in comparison; must be the most heavily oaked wine I've had this side of Spain. Nothing succeeds like excess, though; I don't generally like wines that are oaked for no reason, but this one made its own reasons. It stood up to the fish-and-light-tomato sauce on my linguine, to various salads, to a somewhat zestier tomato sauce one of our friends had. The 1992 is supposed to be even better, and the 91 Reserve is out there for those who can afford it. We all shared the garlicky sauteed oyster mushrooms that came next. No problem with the chardonnay; two in-your- face dishes got in each other's faces just fine. I ordered calves' liver, a specialty of the house, because, by golly, I wanted to have a good foil for the red wine, and cholesterol be damned. Well, darned. Another good match, I'm happy to say; and when one of our friends decided she didn't like the sauce her veal was in (ground coriander is a bit of a shock the first time you have it with meat; me, I've been known to sprinkle it on steaks), we simply swapped plates and this fairly big Tuscan wine didn't interfere with my enjoyment of what turned out to be my second secondo. Three-plus courses, espresso, and all that wine: $41 each. Aside from mass-market tomatoes in the salads, dinner was superb. (Guys, this is New Jersey; we *have* tomatoes in July.) Roger Notes for NJ locals: the eatery is Casabona on Rte. 206 in Princeton. If y'all have seen that Viognier on sale in the state, please let me know where.
New Jersey