1964 Haut Brion with MichaelP

[SF Ed]

Michael P and Nalan are coming over for dinner tonight, and in honor of actually sharing wine with someone other than Lisa, I've started Audouzing a 1964 Haut Brion. Should be pretty nice...

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[dstgolf]

Looks good and envious as we enjoy watching Masters weekend. Hopefully it meets expectations. Look forward to the review.

[Nicklasss]

Jealous here, for the wine, but more for the company of two of my favorite couples. When will be the next time I can make it to Northern California...

Not allowed to invite friends at home here at the moment, but will try to open something nice with MC tonight as the corked Volnay last night was unexpected.

Have a good one Ed.

Nic

[tim]

Very nice! I really need to get down to the Bay Area soon.

[Comte Flaneur]

Please report back Ed, preferably with photos!

Some 64 Haut Brion is coming up for auction here later this month.

[stefan]

Haut-Brion did well in 1964. In 1970 I bought it for $9.99 from the now defunct Bert Wheeler's in Houston.

[s*d*r]

Birth year wine is always better even when it isn’t .

Hope yours is healthy and happy. Sixty-four can be glorious on the Right Bank and Graves but luck is necessary.

Stu

[SF Ed]

A great evening with MichaelP and Nalan. The wines:

1964 Haut Brion was a good but not great example. I've been lucky enough to have this wine many times, and this was a sound bottle, but not a great one. Fairly muted nose but round and ripe fruit on the palate, with all the classical flavors. I've had bottles of this that are near perfect, with long lush fruit and still having moderate tannins. I've also had bottles that were old-tasting and going downhill. This was in between, lots of pleasure but not profound. Ian - if the bottles you are looking at are in good shape, go for it.

Michael served a couple of wines blind (as he likes to do), 1989 and 1990 La Conseillante. The 1989 was the clear WOTN, with loads of fruit, complexity and length and fully mature. The 1990 was much more youthful and one-dimensional - all fruit and little complexity.

We started with a 1999 Comtes de Champagne, which was a great bottle and super tasty.

It was great seeing Michael and Nalan live and in person, which we were able to do safely because unfortunately they both had COVID-19 a month ago. They experienced moderate symptoms but are feeling good now. That makes them the safest dinner guests one can imagine right now, and it was great to have friends over live and in person.

This evening showed just how much 2020 sucks (because none of us can safely generally have wine dinners with friends), and how much I am looking forward to a world where I can drink great wine with my friends without them or me having the risk of contracting/experiencing a deadly disease during a pandemic.

SF Ed

[JimHow]

Wow, thanks for the report and update, Ed, hope there's a light at the end of the tunnel and we can all start getting together again for BWE gatherings.
In the meantime, I'm hunkering down for a cold winter in Maine.

[JoelD]

Very jealous of what sounds like a great night. Both of the wine, and especially of the wine with good friends. Happy you guys got to see each other and that you are all now Covid free and feeling better!

I almost bid on an 89 Conseillante tonight but decided I spent enough on the 89 Pichon lalande and 4 bottles of D'issan 2014 some 2 hours prior.

Maybe as the PCR test becomes more accessible and faster, we can organize a tasting with testing a day prior or even morning of. I think this is something we should brainstorm.

[Jay Winton]

Thanks Ed and thank God our BWEers are ok! The thing about covid I find truly frightening is how it impacts its victims in different ways and with varying levels of severity. Good news this morning as it looks like we have 2 vaccines with high levels of effectiveness. Stay safe everyone!

[Michael-P]

A bit late but wanted to thank Ed and Lisa for having us over to a yummy dinner, sharing yummy wines and fun conversation.

Ed made this huge hunk of lamb, perfectly cooked for many hours, and gave me such a big piece that I wasn't able to even ask for seconds. Lisa made the most amazingly light chocolate cupcakes (for Nalan, a chocolate lover).

I agree with Ed's TNs on the wines. None were compromised, all correct and all enjoyable.

Michael-P

[Claudius2]

Not tried the 64 but I had the 66 at 50 yrs of age and it was in remarkable for its age, still dark colour, no stinky characters or anything that said it is too old.
The only HB I have is 1995 so I can only assume that it will need 30 more years....