BWE London get together...

[marcs]

So I am in London with my just turned ten year old (his first trip outside of the US!). I took the opportunity to get together with Comte Flaneur, the kind of evening that BWE and no other internet board can facilitate so easily because of the relationships we build here. We met at Ian's favorite French restaurant, which has an owner who is a former sommelier and clearly a fellow wine fanatic based on the way his eyes lit up as we discussed each wine with him.

Ian blinded me on all of the wines we drank, something that is a big and somewhat embarrassing test but useful in the way it focuses your attention on what you are drinking. The first wine was white and amazingly crisp, structured and elegant. Just very "more-ish" and activated your salivary glands in a delightful way. I could tell right away it wasn't an American white, and guessed (correctly) it was a white Burgundy. It didn't have the depth or plush fruit I have been coming to expect from premier and grand cru white Burgundy in recent vintages. I guessed a village or satellite appellation just because of that, but really it was remarkably good in a structed way from the first sip. Especially on a hot day of the type we had in London today. Turned out it was the 2011 Pierre Yves Colin Morey Corton Charlemagne, the first of three super generous wines provided by Ian. I would never have guessed PYCM because the few PYCMs I have had have been very plush and fruity by comparison. Perhaps because I guessed a lower ranking wine Ian was somewhat apologetic the entire evening about not opening it earlier to let it express the extra layers of complexity, but he shouldn't have been -- I LOVED this wine. Just absolutely beautifully structured in the way we go to white Burgundy for.

The second wine was a red. It was so plush and sweet on the nose that I initially guessed a right bank Bordeaux. But the palate had more of a mineral Cabernet quality in a way that brought me around to a left bank Bordeaux. Once I had left bank Bordeaux I was a bit stuck and the only thing I could guess was that it was a younger wine, because of its rich/intense/sweet-ish characteristics. Ian prompted me by asking if it was St Julien/Margaux/St Estepehe/Pauillac, and I easily and CORRECTLY responded that it must be a Pauillac. It just had such a regal and complete quality that it intuitively felt Pauillac. That was correct and Ian then asked me which Pauillac was most likely to seem like a right bank Bordeaux and I again correctly answered Pichon Lalande. So if you are generous in assessing my answers then I get some credit here for correctly nailing that the wine was a Pichon Lalande blind! But I really got hung up on the age. The sheer intensity of this wine on the nose especially had me hung up on the idea that it was a 10-15 year old wine. But it turned out to be the 1986 Pichon Lalande! An absolute tribute to the ageability of Bordeaux and also the high quality of aged wine that can be achieved when classed growths move no further than across the English Channel for their entire life, because I definitely was convinced that this wine was at least two decades younger than what it actually was. I will say that over the course of the evening this wine faded somewhat in a way that did give some evidence of its age. I should say I have had this same 1986 PLL in the US and it was nothing like this, very good but a much more aged wine.

Finally, Ian opened up a third bottle. At this point I was pretty tipsy and my son noted, accurately, that "you have that drunken glint in your eye". This wine was more intensely cabernet than the first and one could tell immediately that it could be nothing but a left bank Bordeaux. Ian responded that it was 'sort of' but 'not quite' left bank and I immediately guessed Pessac Leognan on that basis alone. This was correct, but TBH without that hint I couldn't have gotten it. It was so minerally and austere at first that I couldn't tell if it was a high end wine that was young and underdeveloped or a lower quality wine that was older and just not very good. But it had a sneaky developing intensity to it that made me think it must be a higher growth wine. Since I thought it was younger that steered me away from LMHB/DDC/Pape Clement etc. because these wines have become higher alcohol and more international styled in recent years. I wondered about Haut Bailly and Smith Haut Lafite because I am less familiar with them. As the wine lingered open and more glasses were poured it was growing and growing in intensity, vividness, and Cabernet character to the point that I was almost forced to guess 2010 or 2014 Haut Brion as, despite the fact that I had almost no experience HB, this was the highest end classic Pessac I could think of that would have such intensity. But it turned out to be 1996 La Mission Haut Brion. For a second time this evening I had been fooled by the extraordinary storage quality Ian could achieve in England for his aged Bordeaux, because this had a force and vividness that I associate with a younger wine. This was also before LMHB's shift to greater use of late-picked Merlot with associated 15%+ alcohol -- 1996 was of course a super-classic Cabernet vintage with 13% alcohol. I can only hope my own bottles of 2014 LMHB will someday achieve this quality!

Anyway, it was a great evening, and many thanks to Ian who not only brought sensational wines but went out of his way to involve my extroverted ten year old son in the conversation, during an evening that might otherwise have been somewhat alienating to a child who could not drink alcohol. Fantastic and highly enjoyable night, thank you Ian!

[JimHow]

Wow what an awesome report.
I am forever grateful for the generosity I see here in this amazing place.
Thank you again Ian, your BD is grateful and amazed by your hospitality.

[Dandersson]

Amazing report of what seems to have been and awesome evening!
Thanks for sharing!

Best, Dan

[jckba]

Great write up on what sounds like a wonderful evening across the pond!

[JCNorthway]

Thanks for the great write-up, Marc. The wines sound fabulous; glad you and Comte to make this happen.

[JoelD]

Wonderful stuff. Ian is such a great host. I'll be curious to hear his thoughts on the wines too. Sounds like the WOTN for you was the 86? Also are you referring to the one we had last May together? Because that one sadly turned out corked so that may have played a factor. Although I'm sure Ian's bottle would have been better regardless.

[DavidG]

What a wonderful way to celebrate the BWE spirit. Kudos Ian for the hospitality and generosity and Marc’s for your always engaging notes.

[marcs]

Wonderful stuff. Ian is such a great host. I'll be curious to hear his thoughts on the wines too. Sounds like the WOTN for you was the 86? Also are you referring to the one we had last May together? Because that one sadly turned out corked so that may have played a factor. Although I'm sure Ian's bottle would have been better regardless.

Hard to pick a WOTN, everything was great! I would say the 86 started out leading the pack, but that 96 LMHB just kept coming on stronger and stronger as the 86 faded a bit. Just had that very pure 96 cabernet quality, rugged and rocky yet subtly sweet. Maybe nipped the 86 at the end. That PYCM was no slouch either!

Yes I was thinking about the PLL from last May. You’re right it may have been corked (I’m not as good at detecting as you), but we also had the 85 and 89 that night and both also tasted considerably older than this did.

[JoelD]

That definitely all makes sense. The 96 sounds way too young for me. Although maybe with lots of air. But that’s where our palates differ so much.

I found that 85/89 pichon to be perfect. Mature, not old. Same with how I much preferred the 82 calon over the 82 Cos last week. I only need a hint of fruit left as long as there’s good acidity and lots of other tertiary notes to make up for it. We might soon need a nickname for our sweet spot like the howquito. The 95 GPL is a prime example of this.

But ps, don’t go blowing 400 a bottle at hdh trying to recreate the experience

[stefan]

Ian paid you well for making you work so hard, Marcus! Great story; great wines. Ian is as generous as he is knowledgeable.

[Nicklasss]

Wonderful report marcs, and again, only BWE can turn out to make event like that.

I had the 1986 Pichon Lalande a few times, and always thought it was 15 years younger.

Ian is a great host, a real passionate BWEers. A generous host too.

When i think about it, i don't know it is a good or bad thing that all BWEers live far apart from each other. Can you imagine the damages, if we would be all living in a 100 miles circle? Ouch!

[Jay Winton]

Outstanding!

[Comte Flaneur]

I had a busy day and missed some of Marc’s early messages for an earlier meet up and I also opened the Pichon at around 530pm but for some reason did not double decant it. My mistake was not to open and splash decant the PYCM because this wine only showed a fraction of its potential on the night. On popping and pouring it was really quite tightly wound - previous bottles afforded more freedom of expression have impressed more.

The Pichon benefitted from being opened and was singing well when Mathieu poured the first glass. It still has that stern acidic spine one associates with the 1986 vintage but this is now in a good place and it was a good bottle, part of a lot which I have owned for about 30 years, and the second or third last bottle. It combines the exuberance on the attack of the 1980s Comtessas with the big framed structure of the 1986 vintage, with slightly more Cabernet in the blend than normal (75% iirc).By any measure a fabulous bottle of claret.

We had a fair bit of momentum so I asked Mathieu to open the back up, the 1996 La Mission. Popping and pouring such a wine - as with the PYCM Corton Charlemagne - is a risky proposition - but after a slow start …rubbing its eyes …the Mission started to come into its own. The 1996 vintage is a quintessentially BWE vintage. We all know it well and love it. Our adulation centres around wines like the Leovilles, the Pichons, Ducru, Montrose, GPL, Talbot, Lagrange, Sociando Mallet, etc.

At our 1996 25th anniversary dinner last October downstairs at the same restaurant the Mission was the surprise package denying the likes of Mouton, Haut-Brion, LLC, PLL and Ducru a podium position as the mighty Lafite and Margaux slugged out for the top two places, with the Latour being out of sorts. This bottle was similar to the one we had in October after it opened up. I will borrow from my notes that night: “La Mission, unlike it’s slightly posher sibling Haut-Brion, delivered fireworks last night, and was arguably the most exciting wine of the whole evening. This La Mission has great energy, much more than the Haut-Brion, electricity and laser-like focus, searing acidity and exhilarating rocky, smoky, volcanic, notes. Such a riveting 1996 and a triumph, 97 pts.

Joel suggested that it might be too young. I think it is in a really good place because it has so much energy and of course it will evolve well. But no harm in popping one now if you have a few. I am so lucky to have the remnants of a case. La Mission reined in and overtook the Pichon, which as Marcus noted began to fade ever so slightly towards the end of the evening, but it was a more than solid showing by the 86 Comtessa, because it is a wine which can be variable…my batch has been a bit up and down and this was a good example.

It was a pleasure to see Marcus in the extraordinary heat that we have been experiencing here in the U.K. I am on the Welsh border as I write this and it was 90F here today - unheard of in this part of the world. Like Nic a few weeks ago Marcus did brilliantly in identifying the wines. It was also a pleasure to meet young Gus, who is 10 going on 20 and such a sharp and perceptive young man. And thanks everyone for the compliments. I really do love hosting BWErs over here, it multiplies the pleasure of opening great bottles.

[AKR]

Very impressive! btw, related to the 86 Pichon Lalande - there is a new good trip report on WB from Julian Marshall about a recent visit.