A Friday Night with BWE in DC

[JimHow]

Omg I almost forgot how much epic fun to be had.
Everybody was in rare form, looking great, a lot of really fun wines.

Thank you Joel for organizing such a great night!
It was great to see friends again, old and new.

[JimHow]

David, Jay, Ed

[JCNorthway]

It was great to get back to a BWE event for the Friday dinner. What a wide range of wines; I did not take any notes, but I will try to at least recall what I tasted.

Thanks, Joel, for planning and organizing this. I thought the venue was really nice for a gathering like ours, and the food and service were very good.

[SF Ed]

Friday night was a super evening. Great wines, great folks.

My favorite wines of the evening were the 1987 Montelena Cab, the 2001 Beaucastel, and the 1999 Jamet. It was a great treat to try the multiple vintages of Togni Cab, all the different 2001 CdPs, and gems like the 1983 La Chapelle. Good stuff all around!

SF Ed

[Nicklasss]

Surely a good sample here Ed, of the good stuff from Friday. You and Lisa were looking great on those few seconds to say hi.

Just a quick question: did you preferred that 1999 Jamet, or a few years ago at a Friday night dinner the 1999 Clape? I understand if you can't comment as sometime just one/few sips during the dinner... and at over 20 years old, nice spot to open/drink them?

[SF Ed]

Good question! If pressed, I'd probably pick the 1999 Clape we had in Denver, but it would be very close. 1999 was very good in the Northern Rhone, and I think they are drinking really well right now.

SF Ed

[DavidG]

Great job by Joel putting this one together.

I’m going to agree with Ed about the 2001 Beaucastel and 1999 Janet being my favorites. The 1987 Montelena was outstanding as well and best of the California contingent. I also loved the 2015 Louis Latour Meursault - it was rich and ripe in almost but not really California way,

[JoelD]

Thanks everyone for coming. I'm glad it turned out well. I think the setup worked well for being able to really mingle and share all of these fun wines.

Another thanks to Winona Chief for bringing a WOTN for me in the 1987 Montelena. In its own first tier of the night. In such a perfect, beautiful spot and didn't fade at all with 2 hours of air.

Next tier-
-2004 Bollinger Grande Annee- This was a polarizing wine of the evening apparently, but I loved it. In its perfect sweet spot age wise IMO.
-2008 Taittinger Comtes- Much more approachable than I thought it would be, wish I got to check in again. Great wine.
-2015 Louis Latour Meursault Poruzets- So racy and and balanced. Really zipping on all cylinders.
-1983 Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle- Started out a bit thin, but air really brought out the complex spices and notes in a relatively lighter wine at this point.
-1989 Bergaud Cote Rotie- I loved the balance and subtle notes on this. Less big and jammy than the Jamet, which spoke to me.
-1990 Vouvray- Don't remember the producer but I very much enjoyed this wine.
-2001 Don Jon CDP- I didn't get a good crack the Beaucastel, however this wine hit all the notes for me. Not usually a CDP fan, but I would look for this wine.
-2013 D'eugenie Vosne Romanee- Maybe Tim's story about the wine and how close it is to La Tache swayed me. However I very much enjoyed this, and it was the best red Burg of the evening to me, and best 2013 I have tasted. Candidate for underrated wine of the evening.
-2001 Robert Weil Auslese- Don't remember the vineyard, but this was the best of the desert wines for me this evening.

There were a lot of other wines that I very much enjoyed, however this was a tougher night to keep track of with all of the different styles floating around. Both Bordeaux nights spoke to me more in terms of taste. However, I think this was my favorite night in terms of really getting to interact with everyone and all share and taste the same bottles.

[Blanquito]

Another vote for the brilliant 1987 Monty as WOTN, funky, rich, resolved, deep, old school cali at its best. I also thought the 01 Keller spatlese and the 89 Couly-Dutheil chinon were notably wonderful amid so many great bottles.

I will say this though, I was very disappointed how much I liked the 08 Taittinger Comtes. Even though my pour was too warm for my preferences and I drank it before it had had much air, I was pretty blown away by this champagne. Such depth, power, length, intensity, all in a style I prefer (brighter/chalkier). I like Taittinger a lot, with the 95 and 96 being two of my favorite bubblies, but multiple bottles of the 06 and 07 Comtes in recent years have been head scratchers (closed?). Not the 08, which unfortunately seems tot deserve of all the hype.

[DavidG]

Patrick, how could I have forgotten the Keller? Yes, that was another highlight.

I missed the 08 Comtes on Friday but happy to hear your impressions as I have a few in the cellar.

[marcs]

The 2001 Keller was actually my wine of the night, really mindblowing. The nose was full of all good white and yellow things balanced in crystalline harmony -- butter, lemon, pineapple, peach, you name it. The palate was sweetness tightened into perfect tension by acidity. The greatest Riesling I've ever had.

Blanquito said very kindly to me that he thought our palates were quite similar, and I replied that he thought that just because I hadn't posted any notes for Thursday or Friday yet . The truth is I have a partiality to vivid fruit that leads me to prefer wines in their vigorous adulthood rather than their aged wisdom, and that showed up with the 1987 Montelena -- I found it thin, funky and faded in a way I didn't like that much.

A big lesson of Friday night, as often happens, is how good and underrated aged Chateauneuf can be. The trio of 2001 Beaucastel, Vieux Telegraphe, and Vieux Donjon were excellent. They also matched amazingly well with the olive tapenade appetizer, a classic Mediterranean pairing. But I would have ordered them maybe a little differently than others. The Vieux Donjon was my favorite, then the Beaucastel following *very* close behind, then the Vieux Telegraphe well behind that. The Beaucastel was the most exotic of the three, full of dark spiced plums and cinnamon. The Vieux Telegraphe was solid but I found it a little bland compared to the others. The Vieux Donjon was a perfect balance, just enough exoticism but regal and a little more structured than the Beaucastel.

I was surprised by how well the 1997 Insignia showed. I tend to dump on that wine as stereotypical California with a bit of a soft-sloppy quality. This 1997 was definitely jammy and dark-fruited but it had great depth and just enough edge and structure to make it really interesting. Would enjoy that in my cellar.

A 1995 (?) Monte Bello was good but gave me some doubts about whether Monte Bello ever fully relaxes and comes around. There was a vein of powerful dark fruit but at the same time the acidity was off the charts and there was still a lot of tension in the wine. Also a touch of oak but I thought pretty well integrated and I don't mind a bit of it.

My 2001 Tognis didn't show that well unfortunately, not sure what was up with that. Maybe not the reliably mindblowing wine I thought it was, I've had some really fantastic experiences with that wine and some kind of meh ones. I bought a lot of it so we'll see.

However, my third bottle, a 2011 Conterno Cascina Francia that I mistakenly received in lieu of the 2001, was surprisingly very good given its age. Some said it was "diluted" or something, and it was in a way -- kind of weak given the name and the year -- but that also meant it was very balanced and in great harmony with some nice nebbiolo flavors perfectly expressed.

[Nicklasss]

Nice comments marcs.

These are good Chateauneuf that you had there, and Vieux Donjon is among my favorite with Beaucastel. High alcool combined with excellence? Yes it is possible.

Monte Bello. I'm with you. It is like the Latour or Las Cases of California, aging at frozen snail speed...

I always thought Insignia as a nice Napa Cab. But i had only pre 2000 vintages

Too bad for the Togni. But with the years, i 've been very unlucky with my own Friday night dinner wines. Sulphurized Méo-Camuzet, corked Azelia Barolo, very flat 1990 Chateauneuf... i only had successes when i cheated (1996 Montrose one year and a 1985 Gruaud Larose another year...).

[hautbrionlover]

Vieux Donjon is also my favorite CdP, with Beaucastel close behind!

[NoahR]

Sad to miss…