marcs wrote:Are we talking about BWE France or BWE DC? I don't see myself hauling bottles all the way to France but definitely have plans about many bottles to bring to BWE DC.
Marcus
When I lived in CT I travelled back and forth between LHR and JFK five or six times a year, and on average I was carrying between 8-10 bottles per trip.
Patrick is bringing over a dozen from Denver. You are better off bringing wines than sourcing them in Bordeaux, which is surprisingly expensive for buying the kind of wines we will be drinking on the Sunday and Friday.
We should start a thread soon about what each participant is bringing for Tupina and Chez Alex.
Ian
The 2003 PC was a BWE WOTY and I am bringing it as a bit of an experiment.
It has been arguably the most controversial WOTY winner - and probably one of the most polarising wines ever discussed on the forum.
My interest is to see what others really think about the wine that I have, and I have a feeling that it may vary from the same wine tried by others.
I checked Cellartracker yesterday to find an average score of (I think) 92.9 and few if any of the notes were compatible with my own experiences.
I am also at a bit of a disadvantage as I moved from Australia 10 years ago and progressively sold off the wines in storage back there over the next 6-7 years.
So now, I have very few old Bordeaux. The oldest Bordeaux is about 2000 and I have very few Premiers Crus from any vintage now.
It was more trouble than it was worth to bring it here, largely as the few wines I did ship over were out of condition when they arrived.
In the case of the PC, it was brought over here in my luggage and packed in foam.
None of the other wines (and there were plenty) that I flew over with were out of condition, and that included numerous case lots packed into my rather large Travelpro bag.
So in the end, I decided to sell off the older wines rather than having to ship, and I do not return to Australia very often these days, so carrying them back was not an option.
Marcus
I must agree with Ian - better to bring over the wine rather than source in Bordeaux itself.
You can easily access past vintages though the prices will be scary.
I sourced my bottles of 2008 Cristal and Dom in Bordeaux for the BD Champagne Reception, Alex is gonna hold them for me, the prices were just a little higher than in NH. I'm really hoping I can get another few bottles over there for the opening night and closing ceremonies dinners, I really prefer to travel light and carry on my bag.
We had the 2003 Pontet Canet, among others, at our dinner with Alfred Tesseron in 2015, Claudius.
You can bring whatever you want, Claudius, I’m not uptight about these things.
We have numerous estates crammed into one week, there will be many, many different wines tasted.
I am embarrassed to admit that I only have 1996 Sociando-Mallet, 2002 Leoville Poyferre, and perhaps 1 1995 Yquem. Well, I have quite a bit of 2005 Burgundy, but I doubt we want to take Burgundy to Bordeaux.
I'm getting excited about France '20!
I'm not going to have any WOTYs with me but I'll have some beauties for the Sunday night opening ceremonies and the Friday night closing ceremonies.
I'm also bringing two bottles each of 2008 Dom Perignon and 2008 Cristal to the Benevolent Dictator Champagne Reception on Wednesday evening.
Do we think four bottles will be enough? I'm contemplating about a 1.5 hour event before we hit the city of Bordeaux for separate dinners.
The reception is in our room, yes? It is a 60 m2 suite, which should accommodate us all. Probably Lucie and I will rest that night after the reception rather than go into Bordeaux for dinner. We'll have Saturday night for Bdx central since we are leaving on Sunday.
You read my mind, Stefan.
I was going to inquire on that.
Yes, we'll do the Benevolent Dictator Champagne Reception at your suite.
I'm thinking, 5pm?
5:30?
Ian
I have 09 Giscours plus several 05 Burgs but no GCs from that vintage. Maybe give them a miss.
Tom
Happy to bring the 03 PC.
Will dig out a few other wines from the storage unit but as noted the oldest Bdx I still have is 2000. I should have retained some of the 96 1ers Crus that went to auction. Oh well.
I received a nice note from Howard Kwok yesterday. I'm looking forward to our visit to Tour Saint Christophe / Belfont Belcier.
This will be a historic passage to Bordeaux!
Hello Jim, hello Tom,
Thank you for your email! Good to see that your planning is in progress. We at Vignobles K were all so happy when BWE selected Tour Saint Christophe for wine of the year 2019. It is an honor to receive such a high recognition from end consumers, and your support really matters to us. I was also very happy to meet you at Harvard in Cambridge last year. Thanks for driving all the way down to MA.
I've been going to the BWE forum regularly and I see that it really is a great group of people who are passionate about wine, and especially Bordeaux wines. I would be very excited to meet the group, and would like to invite the group to our properties for tasting and dinner. I will be in Bordeaux at the time, so you will come as our guests. The only commitment we need from you is your time. I have cced Jean Christophe our GM and , let me talk to him before getting back to you on how to best organize the tasting + dinner.
I wish you all good health and a great 2020. I'm currently in Bordeaux, and with the situation in China, I may end up staying here until your group arrives!
Ian
I am going to a local auction next weekend (9th Feb) and will try and find a few older BWE winners.
Failing that, I will bring the oldest wines in the hold.
So I will bring the 2003 PC and 09 Giscours as well.
SInce there are two of us, I'll try and bring 4 bottles.
Stefan
No problem having those wines.
I had the 96 Sociando Mallet a few months ago at a tasting and it was very good, starting to show some inky/iodine and gamey characters thus at age 24, I think it is fully mature.
In relation to 05 Burgundy, happy to bring something but they seem a little superfluous at this event.
At UGC Montréal, i discussed a long time with the owner of Chateau Talbot. Their 2017 is excellent, was one of the better wine that day.
I explained to him what was BWE and he told me the group should go to Talbot. I'm happy to read that you're going. The owner was a very gentle, happy and interesting gentleman. You'll have fun there.
I think the "secret" is to accept that there are things that you cannot do now that you could when you were younger, and concentrate on what you can do now. Long I ago I accepted that my students are smarter than I, more recently that my phone is smarter than I, and I am beginning to deal with my watch being smarter than I. Nevertheless, some things I do better than any of them, and I focus on those things.
If and when I realize that I am near hopeless, I'll have a party with my family, drink some great wine, and kill myself (fortunately, stefanJr lives in a state where this is legal). Then I'll sample things in That Great Tasting Room in the Sky that I missed while alive. Meanwhile, life is good, and I enjoy almost every minute of it. I did not even mind doing 2019 income taxes this morning as TurboTax did most of the work. Right now, while Lucie is doing her nails before we go to a Beethoven concert that will have the Pastoral Symphony and the Emperor Piano Concerto with the current Van Cliburn silver medalist as soloist, I am sipping on a wonderful Domaine Drouhin 2015 Laurene while eating delicious leftover quail and duck. I would have liked to have played golf this morning; unfortunately, physical problem have delayed our getting back on the course, but why sit around moaning?
I'm jalous too. But i only have myself to blame, as i just had to select to go.
But even if i'm not going, i don't mind as some other will go and have fun. At the end, i 'm basically proud of BWE to get such notoriety.
Last, i will be much happier in DC with Marie-Claude than on myself in Bordeaux. As stefan and you David will also be in DC, we can have fun while discussing abput that.
Nic
Last edited by Nicklasss on Sun Mar 01, 2020 9:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Folks
Can I ask what the dress standards are for the events?
I think in previous years there was one or more black tie events.
I do not have a problem with that - must need to send them to the dry cleaners.
In relation to the wines I will bring, I went to the storage facility on Thursday and could not see the case of 09 Giscours - partly as I would have had to unpack the entire overloaded hold which my spine was not keen on at the time.
So I will bring a 1995 Haut Brion, 2000 LLC, the 2003 PC and one other.
In general the dress is business casual. During the day, we tended to be a bit more casual and at night more business. Ties are optional but most of the men wore them for the dinners and fancy lunches (e.g. Pontet Canet).
If you check out Danny's pictures from 2015 (somewhere on the site) you can see what is typical.
Tim/Harry
Thanks.
I will bring a jacket and tie.
Very few wear ties over here by the way. Not even in Parliament
The only times I have worn them in the last decade have been at events and a few meetings.
I'm Rachel Miller and just recently signed on for the upcoming trip to Bordeaux. I've known Michael P for years and have met some of you at various W. Coast gatherings as his guest. I live in Napa working in winery sales the past 17+ years. Now in semi-retirement.
I worked for Robert Craig Winery the past 16 years. Bob Craig planted the vineyard for Robin back in the late 80's so had first dibs on the fruit thru 2105. Our last vintage of that vineyard was $90 a bottle. But there are several others on the mountain selling their wine at $350 or close to that - Lokoya for one.
By taking the vineyard to dry-farming I expect they are barely getting 1 ton an acre...
Folks
Panic over the C-19 virus is abating in Asia, even in China.
There have been no deaths at all in Singapore and the new infection rate and death rate is slowing in most other Asian countries, and new infections are now higher in Italy than China.
Not sure why Italy is such a problem area, but the airlines are still moving fine.
I don't see that happening very often.