A Not-White Christmas

Once again, it was a brown Christmas here: not warm enough to sit out on the deck, sipping wine in our shirtsleeves, as it was two years ago, but nice enough to go for a three-hour walk along the river and not regret the adventure.

(Unlike today, with limited visibility because of blowing snow, and considerably colder temperatures.)

At 8.42 kg, our turkey was too big for our small propane BBQ, but we managed to fire up the 'que Christmas Eve for a slightly delayed anniversary dinner of rare buffalo tenderloin accompanied by our last 1998 Malivoire Old Vines Foch.

Despite some cork "issues" and a fair bit of sludge, the wine was terrific: lots of fruit, great nose and legs, and it hung in for the whole dinner.

Wish I could be as complimentary about our main turkey wine, which was a 2003 Estate Pinot Gris from Cedar Creek (usually very nice, and extremely reliable), although the Wolfberger Crémant d'Alsace (our regular supplier was sold out of Cipes) we had before, and the 2004 Gehringer Brothers Late Harvest Riesling for afters, were terrific.

And drifting off to sleep last night, to the wonderful scent of gently simmering turkey stock, was pretty nice, too.