Bordeaux Wine Enthusiasts

I'll bring some old school Cote Rotie.
Maybe some 89 Peqau or 98 Sabon or som Hermitage.
It will be drinkable.

So we are sure we want to drink all these 2007, huh?
You guys are the experts on Rhones, not me, but you're not concerned about a possible repeat of the chewing-on-nails experience we had with the 2005 Burgundies at DC '08?
I'm going to follow the lead of you guys, I'm just asking....

Jim
I am thinking we will be getting a pour of the single bottles and hopefully can try a handful
and the older Rhones will drink nice for dinner

someone else may have better experience than I ....I am flexible

rick

It will be interesting to taste the 07s. My wine group tasted six of them in November. With a few hours of air, they were fairly open, but clearly continued to evolve as we drank them. I would predict that they will be pretty drinkable. But then again, if my predictive skills were so great, wouldn't I be doing something else?

Jon

What Rick and Jon said. Taste the '07s, drink the older stuff. The '07s should be OK with some air and hopefully will give some idea of where they might end up. Hey, they have fruit, Jim, unlike those Burgs.

In my post I didn't mean to imply that 2007's wouldn't be drinkable.
I only meant to say I'll bring some nice bottles.

Rob

I am sure you will bring some nice ones

For planning purposes, If we can pull off a blind 07 CDP tasting in flights - Rob I will assume you will not have any 07s
Perfectly fine we have enough and some highly touted ones at that

see you guys soooon

This is going to be at the Capital Grille, 633 N. St. Claire?

What time will we be starting?

Rick:

1 - Do you have room for 2 more?
2 - If the answer to 1 is "yes", then consider I do not have access to my cellar and the only wines I do have are: Bordeaux, Cal Cab, Port and Sauternes. What should I bring? Then re-consider the answer to 1....

Thanks.

Michael P
The room I have just will not accomodate 2 more . ......we have plenty of great Rhones and would welcome you w/o any wine if I had the room. The larger room was already booked for that Friday night

Let me check .....

I just called TCG and the larger room is taken and the mgr I spoke to indicated at 17 we would be packed in there he also confirmed the larger room is booked all evening

MP - I have just contacted the one couple who may not be a lock on Friday evening.....give me 24 hours and I should hear back yes or no for sure and IF no you can surely have their places


rickju at comcast net if you want to e-mail me

rick

Aww come on we can't have Mike coming from around the world and being shut out of both the Burg and Rhone dinners.

And I don't see JonB or Nic signed up for either Friday dinner either. I really don't want to see anybody coming thousands of miles to Chicago and being shut out a la musical chairs. Should we organize a smaller third dinner? I'd be happy to try to organize one, I'd rather see that than have anyone shut out and dining alone on BWE weekend!

JonB and Nic, what are your plans for Friday night? Is there anyone else who has not committed to either Rick's Rhone dinner or Stuart's Burgundy dinner? The rubber is hitting the road now, the organizers really need to get some final hard numbers as soon as possible so that we're not scrambling to make last minute plans.

Jim
Totally agree.........If Stu has upper level of Bin36 as you he know can handle a lot of people from a space standpoint....not sure the wine/food plans are though

I am checking with Bob Dobis to see if he is an absolute Yes on Rhone...I would think I should know by tomorrow
I'll do my best to get the yes or no to this post asap


Jim - there are many place for a small group ( Maybe Les Nomades again w/different folks) I could see if they will waive corkage on Friday OR the hotel has an nice place to dine and they said they would waive corkage

rick

I wasn't aware the Rhone venue was limited seating. MichaelP wanted to throw Whuzzup out of a moving car at Napa '02 because the latter was developing a taste for Burgundy at the time. It would be nice if we could get some final responses on Friday night plans by this week so that we can decide whether we need to organize a third dinner.

I just received a confirmation on Bob so we are at max in the room I had reserved


Jin you may recall I was holding 2 rooms - the second holds 10 and they are close by one another......but when it looked like there may only be 10 at Rhone as the Burgundy opporunity developed I let the smaller boardroom go

It is great that the venues are filling up and almost everyone is now accounted for

From the beginning TCG large room was not available

I can call back and see if the 10 person room is still available and see if I again can get the minimum charge spread across both rooms

rick

I think the only two unaccounted for on Friday night are JonB and Nic. I'll try to contact them this week. That'll give us a better idea whether we need to do a third dinner. Is Stuart's dinner still limited seating now that it is at Bin 36?

Jim's correct about Napa and me and Burgs. Although most I've had are "drinkable", its a very rare one that I really like, and then I describe those as "Bordeaux-like"! Hence the choice of Rhone.

Jim: lets track down some others like Nic and quickly pull a group together. Sounds like they, and you, need a venue for Fri, and it looks like Rhone won't be able to hold us all.

I don't know what to do, Michael, I can't seem to get ahold of JonB or Nic, which makes it difficult to plan for Friday night.

Jim and Michael,

I'm certainly flexible with Burgundy or other. If you want to make it a quorum (if it doesn't critically affect the numbers for the Burg tasting) I'd certainly be happy to recreate a version of BWE Montreal with Nic et al. Les Nomades suggestion of Rick would be great if you are not already going there Thursday. I'm easy either way. Michael got shut out in NYC in the summer if I recall and don't want to see it happen again. California or Spain might be options in addition to why not BORDEAUX! Let me know Jim.

Danny

That sounds like a possibility, Danny, perhaps a California vs Bordeaux runoff at Les Naumades or just a Bordeaux theme might be fun. Let's see if we can get ahold of Nic and JonB before we make any final decisions...

Jim and all

I just remembered TCG has a table outside the room we are in, as I recall, maybe we could snag that table and we could trade some wines or as I mentioned I could check on the other Boardroom

Jim I am still expecting to see that Beaucastle.........

let me know
rick

Today I saw an wine e-mail blast that the 07 Janasse Chaupin was recently rated at 99 by RP

I knew where 5 were still available so Jim Hannan and I grabed them - one is destined for this dinner

Rick

Lol I'll bring it along anyway Rick. I think a third Bordeaux themed dinner at a separate restaurant like Les Nomades would be better than a table outside the room of the main Rhone dinner. Why don't we try to organize a Bordeaux dinner at Les Nomades with Michael and guest, Danny and Danielle, myself, and if Nic and Jon or anyone else joins us all the better...

I did post the phone number for Les Nomades in a previous post...I heard nothing but great things about Les Nomades

We will be there Thursday night testing it out for you making sure it is up to your standards

My preference is that we try to fit everyone into the Rhone and Burgundy dinners but that doesn't sound like it is going to be possible. There is no room at the inn for MichaelP coming from the other side of the world, and the problem becomes even more exacerbated if JonB and Nic come. It sounds like the only alternative is a third dinner. And further complicating things is that we don't know what Jon and Nic's plans are for Friday night, so I'm reluctant to make any final plans as I go into a very busy couple weeks of trials....

Rick, unless I hear from Nic/Jon by today, I'll assume they aren't participating in the Friday night event. Is there any way we can squeeze MichaelP and guest into the Rhone dinner? Is Stuart's Burgundy dinner limited seating?

If it would help, I would be happy to switch to the Burg dinner or to join a smaller group for a dinner at Les Nomades. I'll send the wines for the Rhone dinner either way...

Thanks, David, let's see where we are at after the next 48 hours or so....

Here is who we would have

David G
Jim H
Rick Kathy
Jon Paula
Rob Sue Claire
Howard and Lisa
Jim and Inna
Bob
Michael +1

it looks like a recent post did not take

Bob D's wife can not make it thus we had a slot open as of a few minutes ago

I have been told room at 16 is at max

Okay looks like the Friday night dinners are set.
If Jon and/or Nic decide to attend perhaps they can join Stuart's dinner or switch with someone from the Rhone event.

So am I and my date confirmed for the Rhone dinner?

What about BD, Nic, Jon?

Yes Michael, you and your guest are confirmed for the Rhone dinner. At this late date I'm guessing JonB and Nic aren't coming to Chicago, but I haven't heard from either of them either way. Can you send an email to Nic ordering him to attend, I'll work on Jon.

I have only been scanning the most pertainent topics for the last couple of weeks, as my wife implemented a "net nanny" (aimed at our kids, of course) and I've had to post with a blackberry.

While this event looks to be an extraordinary one, I let my weekend get filled with kids sporting events. I'll look forward to the tasting (and bout) notes online, and being envious for the remainder of the year.

Jon and Rick - if through this late cancellation this leaves you with an financial commitment, please let me know.

Jon,

We are disappointed that you will not be able to join us to celebrate the 10th anniversary of BWE. I trust that there will be some posting going on during the event so that you can track along vicariously.

As for the financial commitment, if you would just make out a check to "cash" for $10,000, and send it to me, we will be fine.

Seriously, we are OK on the financial side.

Jon

I am sending a
CÔTE-RÔTIE "La Viallère", Dervieux-Thaize 1988
CÔTE-RÔTIE Jamet 1991

Rob

I look forward to trying these two gems

rick

I emailed both Nic and MC a few days ago and have no replys. We'll miss them!

I always look forward to the obligatory Jean-Nicolas Maltais sentimental speech at the Saturday night dinner, a tradition that was commenced nine years ago at Chicago '01....