If you look at the left side-bar of this blog you'll see that with 2010, this blog enters its fifth calendar year. Here's what we had: (2005) Cédric Bouchard Roses de Jeanne Les Ursules Brut Blanc de Noirs - solo. 2002 Luneau-Papin Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine Excelsior Clos des Noelles with fish soup. am not in the wine business.

He brought a few truly special bottles of wine from France for this dinner, one of which was the 2002 Benoît Lahaye Brut Champagne Millésime. This version is, anyway, which I am guessing is based on 2005 grapes, bottled in 2006, and disgorged in August of 2008 based on the hard-to-spot code on the back label that reads "08 2008."

After they met in November 2002, they created an escape in their home by hosting frequent dinners to celebrate friendships and family, food and wine. Aroma is a study in contrasts: The urban/rustic interior features exposed brick, a dark wood bar with natural edges juxtaposed with mirrors framed with brushed steel.

The Puzelat brothers' wines are an institution at natural wine bars in France, and are firmly entrenched in the vocabulary of natural wine aficionados here in New York. 2002 Puzelat Touraine Pinot Noir La Tesni è res $18 I stumbled on this bottle, the last in the store, at Astor the other day. You love good wine, right? It works.

Owner and chef Chris, who just that morning had been a total teddy bear serving his delicious apple-cinnamon pancakes, became an utter tyrant while pouring a fabulous 2002 Peconic Bay Cabernet Sauvignon and an equally impressive 2005 Reisling. Dee and P were happily surprised at how much they liked the wines. suspect it was the latter.

Most are from 2005, a wonderful vintage. White: 2005 Domaine de la Pepiere Muscadet Sevre et Maine , $10 (so far, my case is the same as Lyle's). 2005 Thomas-Labaille Sancerre les Monts Damnees , $21 (Our cases diverge here). Sancerre, the darling of wine bars everywhere a few years ago, is made from Sauvignon Blanc.

We decided to open these particular wines before our blind tasting because: 1) The Raffault wine is from the 2002 vintage, and is not as young as the other wines in the tasting. Here are some notes from our "exercise" over the past few nights: 2002 Olga Raffault Chinon Les Picasses, $16 Raffault is a venerable estate in the Loire valley.

2002 Pian del Ciampolo was in stores until a few months ago and it was graceful, light bodied, but pretty intense wine. 2003 is supposed to be far superior to 2002 in Tuscany and I was excited to try the new vintage. Fuller bodied than the 2002, intense smokey cherry and leather flavors, very earthy. Now, the weekend's wines.

Their unoaked 2005 Estate Sauvignon Blanc was fresh and lively. We emerged from our tasting there with a few bottles of their 2002 Cabernet Franc Reserve and a 375 ml of a 2004 zippy desert wine made from late harvest chardonnay called Allegra. 2005 Lamoreaux Landing $18 - light golden hue, very reserved nose. 2005 Hermann J.