WTN: Wines in Cape May (Bdx, Loire, Bojom Burg) + Nero d'A

A friend was renting a cute house in Cape May Point, we made a dash down for 2 nights. Lots of BYO options, I had thrown some random bottles in a shipper. The first night we went to the Black Duck. Nice restaurant in an old house not too far from us. I started with some blue crab spring rolls,Betsy has a special "trio of vegetable appetizers" (baby artichokes, panko crusted squash blosssoms, heirloom tomatoes), Dolores a salad with Stilton. For mains Betsy had salmon, I had skate, Dolores duck. As Dolores is mostly red person, we had a bottle of both red and white:

2008 JP Brun/Terres Dorees Beaujolais Blanc
My first taste of this vintage, but as usual I find this a fine value. Clean green apple and Bosc pear fruit, no oak, good acidity, mineral on finish. I need to taste this and the 07 Drouhin St Veran head to head in a best Chardonnay value for under $15 contest. B+

2000 Ch. de Chambrun (Lalande de Pomerol)
Very modern, some tannins but pretty open, fleshy black plum and cassis, vanillin oak, big mouthfeel, sweet, heavy. I liked but didn't love, but more appropriate food might have been in order (I mainly liked as a port substitute! ) B

Next night it was just Betsy & I, we tried out 410 Bank. I started with a spicy crayfish bisque, while she had lobster bisque. I then had mesquite grilled chicken, while she had lamb chops. Again, 2 wines:

1985 La Navire Vouvray Demi-Sec
OK, I've never been so conflicted as to whether something was mildly corked. A hint of cardboard/must, no it's not there, wait, there it is again, well I can't find it now (well chilled it seemed invisible). This isn't Huet, but lurking underneath the possibility of TCA was an amazingly youthful if not profound wine- maybe it was a teeny bit corked,but not oxidized at all. Fresh apple cider and flint. The colder glasses with no TCA get a B.

1993 Bouchard "Clos de la Mousse" Beaune 1er
OK, so not exactly an inspired match with the New Orleans meets Southwest cuisine. Good acidity (no surprise there with vintage!), cranberry and raspberry fruit, some earth/mushrooms, resolved tannins, pleasant enough Burg if not a star. B

Wednesday we drove back, I dropped Betsy and stuff at home, when to office for a short while. She ordered a pizza for me to pick up (sausage and broccoli rabe), we had the 2005 Feudo Montoni Nero d'Avola. Solid dark fruit, leather, some mocha though this doesn't strike me as modern. I've liked this wine in earlier vintages, this is quite nice. B+

So some QPR stars (the Brun and Montoni) as well as some interesting if not great wines. I like Cape May and it was good to get away for couple days

Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C mediocre. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a party where it was only choice. Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency. 

[David M. Bueker]

That Brun sounds great yet again, but I have a hard time buying white value wines, as I already have so much white wine.

That Brun sounds great yet again, but I have a hard time buying white value wines, as I already have so much white wine.

Agree. One of the main reasons I never buy the Brun blanc. Except when stranded with no other options.

Cape May is a nice restaurant town, although I'm not familiar with the Black Duck. If you make it back, Water's Edge and Washington Inn are two of my faves (although neither is BYO, Wash Inn especially has a nice wine list).