

But long before Labory, the owner in the 18th century was Pierre Gaston.

From François-Armand Labory, came the second part of the estate name. Luckily I have another bottle of each stashed away.Historians say the Cos, here and at neighbouring Cos d’Estournel, evolved from early French for ‘hill of stones’ or, more simply, ‘hilly’. So the star of the show was the 2012, with the 2015 showing lots of promise. It was probably too early to open the 2015 (50% Merlot, 26% Malbec, 21% Cabernet Franc, 3% Cabernet Sauvignon) as it just didn’t have the depth or power of the other two, but you can sense it coming, with the flavour bubbling under the structure. Merlot, you’re slowly but surely changing my mind. It tasted like chocolate fudge cake, though the fruit still showed through. I’d have sworn there was more Cab Sauv in there, but Laura called the blend early. The 2012 (80% Merlot, 12% Cabernet Franc, 4% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Malbec) packed a wallop. The 2010 (33% Merlot, 31% Cabernet Franc, 19% Cabernet Sauvignon, 17% Malbec) got better in the glass as we drank it, but was just beginning to give over to vegetal characteristics. This time we moved just down the road from Thirty Bench to Hidden Bench, and three vintages of their top-end Bordeaux blend: La Brunante. We were overdue for a wine-vertical-hangout with Laura like the one we did in February. I forgot that I didn’t have any Champagne in the house to celebrate with, but a bottle of Lightfoot & Wolfville 2012 Blanc de Blancs filled in nicely. I don’t want to jinx it, but it went well yesterday, such that I actually got home in time for dinner with Lindsay. I was actually stuffed all day, but still couldn’t resist a piece of pumpkin pie, which the coordinator thoughtfully added to the menu, since everyone was giving up their holiday Sunday. On Sunday I went to the office, and since there were dozens of us working onsite, the team brought food in.

We both got the hot turkey sandwich, so…check off one Thanksgiving tradition. Saturday I managed to get a hundred things done in between calls, and we even ducked out to White Lily for dinner. The work stuff started Friday night and kept me awake for most of it. I had a big - very big - work thing scheduled this weekend, which was going to run from Friday night through at least Sunday, and maybe Monday, to the point where it didn’t make sense to plan much at all. This was never going to be a normal Thanksgiving weekend. The bartender brought over some Tokaj he thought about putting on the menu.sticky toffee pudding w/ caramelized white chocolate, birch syrup, vanilla cream.La Lecciaia Sassarello 2012 ‘Super Tuscan’.Hasselback potato w/ truffle butter, chilled foie gras.honey & cumin glazed carrots w/ parsley yoghurt.

