Dinner in Ft. Lauderdale: Part 1: The Medoc

[JimHow]

It was a pretty special night, after two years of plague, to celebrate with Stuart, Kathy, Bill, Jan, David, Peggy, Jacques, and Jill at 3030 Ocean restaurant. We uncorked a lot of great wines, I can't remember them all, I'll list as many as I can off the top of my head: 1990 Montrose, 1988 Krug (special bottling, I forgot what it's called), 1990 Leoville Las Cases, 1966 Mouton and Lafite, 1990 Lynch Bages, mystery guest 1990 GPL, 2008 Cristal, Jacques's California bubbly, I forget what it's called but it was very tasty in its oxidation, there were several great white Burgundies there, others will have to help me out with the names. 1961 Calon Segur was there, I think Stuart thought it might be a bit past its prime but I liked it a lot. I loved both the '90 Montrose and LLC, I think my wine of the night was the 1990 Montrose, still so youthful, incredible nose, 99 points. The 2008 Cristal with oysters, mmm. The 2010 white Burgundy, I forget the producer, was pretty spectacular. We started off the festivities in my room, with a 2008 Dom Perignon, that is a wine headed for greatness. If you ever get a chance to visit Stu/Kathy in Fort Lauderdale I highly recommend it. Everybody looked great, tonight we have a more focused theme at the Wine Watch. As the great sage of Quebec once said, BWE is about the people, not the wine.... Long live BWE!

[Nicklasss]

https://www.google.com/search?q=all+the ... l5dR0,st:0

[Nicklasss]

Surely looks like a great time. Everyone looks great.

Looking forward night no 2 pictures too.

[JCNorthway]

Quite an amazing line-up (only partial) of wines Great that all of you could get together after all this time. Looking forward to further reports of the weekend.

[Jay Winton]

Father Stefan, the bearded one. Glad BWE continues to mingle!

[dstgolf]

Thanks for the photos with everyone looking great. Wines definitely secondary even as fabulous as some might be it's always about reuniting with good old friends that remains the hi light of the night at these gatherings. Enjoy tonight.

Signed

Envious North of the 49th

[stefan]

It was really, really fun to get back together.

One white Burgundy was 2010 Domaine Leflaive Chassage; the other a Francois Carillon 1er Cru; I think from 2017. The Krug was Clos du Mesnil. We finished with 1986 Yquem.

It is not surprising that the 1990s outshone the 1960s, although it was fun to drink the older wines. Both the Lafite and Mouton 1966 were true and different, with the Mouton being fuller and the Lafite being classier. The Clerc-Milon 1961 was a bit off according to Stuart, but also good.

The 1990 Montrose was very impressive and perfect for drinking now. The 1990 Leoville Las Cases was second among the 1990s, followed be the Lynch-Bages and the Grand Puy Lacoste, but all were very good.

[SF Ed]

Sounds like a great evening! I look forward to more BWE events as the plague (hopefully) continues to recede.

I haven't had the 1990 Montrose in a while, but I've had truly great bottles. Same with the 1990 Las Cases. Yum.

SF Ed

[DavidG]

What a blast to see everyone again.

1990 Montrose was my red WOTN, followed by 1990 LLC.

I served the 1990 GPL blind because I thought it an excellent GPL and wanted it to get a fair shake given Jim and Jacques general dislike of the Château. The group did a good job of trying to identify it, narrowing it down to 1989 Pauillac. It made a good impression.

[DavidG]

A few shots from Friday:

[AKR]

Very impressive lineup and great to see all the pictures of folks doing well.

[s*d*r]

We uncorked a lot of great wines, I can't remember them all, I'll list as many as I can off the top of my head: 1990 Montrose, 1988 Krug (special bottling, I forgot what it's called), 1990 Leoville Las Cases, 1966 Mouton and Lafite, 1990 Lynch Bages, mystery guest 1990 GPL, 2008 Cristal, Jacques's California bubbly, I forget what it's called but it was very tasty in its oxidation, there were several great white Burgundies there, others will have to help me out with the names. 1961 Calon Segur was there, I think Stuart thought it might be a bit past its prime but I liked it a lot. I loved both the '90 Montrose and LLC, I think my wine of the night was the 1990 Montrose, still so youthful, incredible nose, 99 points. The 2008 Cristal with oysters, mmm. The 2010 white Burgundy, I forget the producer, was pretty spectacular.

The bubbly was 2017 Ultramarine Blanc de Blancs, probably the best California bubbles I have ever had and ready now. The burgundies were 2017 Louis Carillon Les Referts and 2010 Leflaive Chevalier-Montrachet, both excellent representatives of what they are.

There was also 1966 Montrose which to me was clearly more successful and lively than the other two sixty-sixes.

The ‘61 Calon Ségur was much more tired than a pristinely stored bottle last month but still had a bit of earthy St. Estèphe character.

Agree with Jim and I think just about everyone else that ‘90 Montrose was WOTN. And to think I almost poured it down the sink at home because I thought it may have been fatally ill with Bret when I first opened it. Somehow it cleaned up miraculously.

[JoelD]

Agree with Jim and I think just about everyone else that ‘90 Montrose was WOTN. And to think I almost poured it down the sink at home because I thought it may have been fatally ill with Bret when I first opened it. Somehow it cleaned up miraculously.

Sounds like an absolutely wonderful weekend, Stu. I have two bottles each of the 89 and 90 Montrose. Considering how much they keep going up in price though I'm contemplating selling at least the 90's to reinvest in safe bottles due to the potential brett issues. Glad this one showed out though. How long did it take for the brett to fade? Did it go away completely or linger/come back at all?

[Tom In DC]

Well done, everyone! Looks like a great evening.

[s*d*r]

Agree with Jim and I think just about everyone else that ‘90 Montrose was WOTN. And to think I almost poured it down the sink at home because I thought it may have been fatally ill with Bret when I first opened it. Somehow it cleaned up miraculously.

I have two bottles each of the 89 and 90 Montrose. Considering how much they keep going up in price though I'm contemplating selling at least the 90's to reinvest in safe bottles due to the potential brett issues. Glad this one showed out though. How long did it take for the brett to fade? Did it go away completely or linger/come back at all?

I can’t answer this definitively because I double decanted it promptly despite the brett. But by the time I opened it again a few hours later at the restaurant it had totally vanished. I have never seen this happen before so I got lucky.

[DavidG]

I was lucky with the bottles of 90 Montrose in my cellar. No Brett bombs. My only lament is that they are all gone.

Agree with Stu that there was not a whiff of bandaid or stink in the bottle we had on Saturday.

[Dandersson]

Seems like an amazing event! Great wines of course, but seeing the photo's it makes me happy to see so much joy and happiness in this group. Impressive!
Well done indeed!

Best, Dan