BWE NYC wine gathering: July 11th

[Blanquito]

We could make this a 1996 vs. 2003 with the same wines in both vintages if anyone has a Pontet-Canet 1996 and/or a Lafon Rochet 2003. The nice thing about this proposed line-up is all the wines did well in both 1996 and 2003.

How about this for the line-up?:
Blanquito: Sociando Mallet 2003 and Lafon Rochet 1996
Ramon: Pontet Canet 2003 and Pape Clement 1996
JimHow: Sociando 1996 and Pontet Canet 1996???, plus a Sauternes
Brendan: Duhart Milon 2003 and Duhart Milon 1996
Chasse-Spleen: something older, Lafon Rochet 2003?

[Blanquito]

I should add that this is line-up idea is immaterial- we've plenty of wine as it is, and the get-together is the real point. It's just fun playing mix-and-match.

[Chasse-Spleen]

Thanks, Patrick. Is there any problem generally with increasing the number? Can it go to 8? I don't think it would be too much of a problem adjusting a reservation if there's more than a week's notice.
-Chris

[Ramon_NYC]

I’d be happy to make the request to expand our reservation to accommodate more attendees. However, I’d prefer to do that once we get some firm level of commitment.

I know that NYC restaurants are not doing robust business nowadays, and as I’m under the impression that the place may not be truly corkage-free, to a certain degree there were still some strings to be pulled in making the arrangement to bring our wines corkage-free. Also, we booked a Saturday dinner which may traditionally be a busy night for them.

I can easily add or subtract people had we done this at Fabio’s, as I (and BWE) had already established positive relationships with them.

I hope you guys understand.

[Ramon_NYC]

Ok that makes sense, let's do 1996 and 2003.
From 1996 I can bring LLC, GPL, Sociando, Lafon Rochet, Montrose, I also have half bottles of Leoville Barton.

That 96 GPL looks appealing. OK, from a selfish POV, it's one I don't own and have not tasted before. But, I'll be happy with any of the above.

[Ramon_NYC]

Bumping up.

Are we set with the attendee list and the bottles? As I wrote in my previous note, I'd gladly make the arrangements to add more persons whenever we can get some level of firm confirmation.
Also, I'll be discussing with the restaurant manager the number of glasses we want per person and whether we want some/all flights blind. They also provided decanting options during the last time I was there.

I suggest that we do flights, each consisting of 3 red wines. So far, we will have 9 reds and that would make it 3 flights. There will be a 4th glass for the whites. Any more glasses on the table can make the whole set-up quite unwieldy. Plus, it looks like there's enough wines for everybody to get multiple pours.

BTW, I hope it’s OK with everybody that I subbed my 1996 Pape Clement for a 1996 Cos d’Estournel. I just realized that I didn’t have that 1 bottle of the P Clement in my home fridge and I will not have the time this week to get one from my offsite storage. I will also bring a white starter.

Here’s the line-up as per the latest communications:

Blanquito: Sociando Mallet 2003 and Lafon Rochet 1996
Ramon: Pontet Canet 2003, Cos d’Estournel 1996, and 2000 Trimbach CFE
JimHow: Sociando 1996 and Pontet Canet 1996??? (or ’96 GPL???), plus a Sauternes
Brendan: Duhart Milon 2003 and Duhart Milon 1996
Chasse-Spleen: Smith Haut Lafitte 2002 and a white starter

This is great and I look forward to seeing everybody.

[Chasse-Spleen]

Ramon,
I'm planning on bringing some stems. I will just bring four if you think the restaurant's stemware is ample. Also, do you think you need to bring a starter if I'm bringing one? But I understand if you've got something that you're dying to share. We're starting to accumulate a ton of wine. Maybe some half bottles in there might be a good idea? Wait - did I say that? Heck, we'll just have to take some of the wine home.
-Chris

[Ramon_NYC]

Chris,
Yes, please feel free to bring your own stemware. Glad that you brought this up ahead of time as the restaurant had graciously asked me to inform them about our number of flight glasses per person simply because they look forward to appropriately setting up our table. They will set us up with as many stems as we want, but I think 4 reds + 1 white should be good for our flight needs. I, myself, will use the restaurant’s stemware as I thought they were more than adequate for Bordeaux tasting. Anybody else prefer to bring his own?

Also, I will also request for some decanters to be made available.

Regarding the extra white starter, I figured that it doesn’t hurt to have a little bit of variety. Here's the deal – unless there’s an overwhelming contrarian opinion here, then I'll still bring it and if everybody decides there that there's no need to open it, then we won't. I don’t recall having multiple starters as ever having been an issue at BWE offlines that I’ve attended, even those with just 4 attendees. Heck, if somebody else decides to bring a 3rd or if you want to bring some half bottles, I’m totally cool with that, too. Nobody’s really compelled to drink these, anyway. I really just look forward to enjoying the evening.

Finally, here’s the restaurant’s url (again). The online menu should give everybody some idea of the cost involved.

http://www.allegrettinyc.com/

Cheers.

[JimHow]

I'm sure it has been mentioned above, but can someone tell me what time we are meeting at Allegretti to commence the destruction of Hound's 2003 sociando Mallet by the 2003 pontet Canet?

[Ramon_NYC]

Reservation is at 7pm at Allegretti's on July 11.

[JimHow]

Thanks Ramon, see you then!

[tim]

Enjoy the dinner all!

[Blanquito]

I've got the wines laid out. Oh boy, this is gonna be a good one!

[Chasse-Spleen]

If you want to update the lineup, these are the wines that I'm bringing:

Smith-Haut-Lafitte 2003

Prudhon 2004 Saint-Aubin 1er Cru En Remilly

-Chris

[Tom In DC]

Have a great evening, BWE'ers!

[JimHow]

Sipping on an '06 Pontet-Canet on the back deck on the first nice evening of summer '09 in Maine, prepping for the big event tomorrow night!