A Perfect Winter's Night Meal

I dug into the stash of goodies that Helene had left for me when she moved to London, and decided to make a go at lentil soup. I surely would have never attempted it had the basic ingredients not been sitting in my cupboard, so thank you Helene for the impetus!

I boiled 500gr of lentils for 10 minutes, then drained them but caught the water in which they had cooked in another container, and added a vegetable bouillon cube to that. Then sauteed one finely chopped onion and three cloves of garlic in about 1/2 cup of olive oil. Added drained lentils, 500 gr of chopped tomatoes, enough leftover water/bouillon to cover, a couple tbsps of freshly chopped dill, 3 bay leaves and some salt and pepper, and simmered covered for about 1/2 hour. 5 mintues before cooking time was up I added about 3 tbsp. of vinegar. Served with some hot bread and a glass of 2003 Kir-Yianni Ramnista, it was a very nice mid-December meal! Looking forward to the leftovers...

Note about the wine: I found a bottle of this at the Inka supermarket and bought it on a whim, never having tried it but knowing that I've liked everything else I've tasted from Kir-Yianni. I liked what I tasted very much, despite the fact that the cork came apart when I tried to open the bottle. So I bought two more bottles, and tried one of them tonight. Again, the cork split in half when I tried to pull it out, and unfortunately the wine was very obviously corked once I got it open. So I pitched that bottle and opened the third and last bottle, and AGAIN the cork broke in half trying to remove it. Fortunately this bottle didn't evidence any TCA that I could discern, but I am curious as to the cork situation in all three bottles. I'm assuming it's that they were stored improperly, and since it is an older year they have probably been sitting upright with no cork contact for several years?