Closing arguments and Calon Segur.....

[JimHow]

So closing arguments tomorrow in my latest attempted murder trial:

https://www.sunjournal.com/2022/08/22/a ... l-himself/

The State has rested, and the defense will be resting tomorrow morning.
We'll go into closing arguments first thing, so I'm sitting here on the back deck prepping a closing argument.
Black man from North Carolina charged with attempting to murder a local white girl, case being tried before yet another all white jury...
Man, I'll tell you, it is at least twice as hard defending a Black man as it is a white man....
I'm guessing we'll have a verdict by this time tomorrow....
The client is facing 30 years in prison.

Meantime, I'm sipping on a just perfect 2011 Calon Segur.... On a gorgeous late August evening on the back deck in Maine....

Gonna grill me a pork chop and retire early, I'm tired. I'm tired.

[Nicklasss]

Aaaah, the 2011 Calon Segur, reminds me good memories.

[JimHow]

Indeed, Nicola, I thought of you and Danny and the girls tonight. This wine is just brilliant.

[Racer Chris]

I have one bottle of the 2011 which I've been thinking about opening soon. I've enjoyed some other 2011s recently, including a Capbern-Gasqueton just a couple weeks ago. It must be time for the C-S.
Good luck today Jim.

[marcs]

I swear to god Jim the degree of difficulty on your cases keeps going up

What you need to do is retire, move to Hollywood, and pitch a TV series based on your career. Each week the attorney gets a more and more over the top murder case and each week he has to come up with a way to explain it away

[DavidG]

Good luck Jim!

[Jay Winton]

I swear to god Jim the degree of difficulty on your cases keeps going up

What you need to do is retire, move to Hollywood, and pitch a TV series based on your career. Each week the attorney gets a more and more over the top murder case and each week he has to come up with a way to explain it away

We've had the Lincoln Lawyer. Bring on the Lewiston Lawyer!

[JimHow]

Closing completed, jury went out at 11:40am.
I could use a couple of whiskeys.

[jckba]

Fingers crossed and what kind of whiskey do you normally reach for, domestic or imported?

[AKR]

I swear to god Jim the degree of difficulty on your cases keeps going up

What you need to do is retire, move to Hollywood, and pitch a TV series based on your career. Each week the attorney gets a more and more over the top murder case and each week he has to come up with a way to explain it away

[JimHow]

Sadly no Perry Mason moments today, the jury came in with guilty verdicts this evening.
It was a tough case, no major complaints, we received a fair trial.
Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, all you can ask for is a fair process and we got it from Justice Hal Stewart, an excellent judge.
On to the next battle.
Drowning my sorrows with a 2014 Pichon Baron, it has taken a good hour to begin to open up but now is coming along in classic Pichon Baron Pauillac form.

Sadly I don't drink whiskey, jckba, although days like this might turn me on to it. Been up since 4:30 a.m., it has been a long, hard day, getting caught up on my dozens of unanswered emails...

[Nicklasss]

Sorry for you Jim. I just read the story and again, it was a difficult one to defend.

It is a sad story, as some people have a hard time with ending love relationship, and turn a bit crazy, or depressive or... in any cases, tough and sad.

[marcs]

Sadly no Perry Mason moments today, the jury came in with guilty verdicts this evening.
It was a tough case, no major complaints, we received a fair trial.
Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, all you can ask for is a fair process and we got it from Justice Hal Stewart, an excellent judge.
On to the next battle.
Drowning my sorrows with a 2014 Pichon Baron, it has taken a good hour to begin to open up but now is coming along in classic Pichon Baron Pauillac form.

Sadly I don't drink whiskey, jckba, although days like this might turn me on to it. Been up since 4:30 a.m., it has been a long, hard day, getting caught up on my dozens of unanswered emails...

Tell me more about the 2014 Pichon Baron I have six of them…

[JoelD]

Tough loss, Jim. At least you got a fair shake of it, unlike Alaska.

I'd think a bottle of 2014 Pichon Baron trumps whiskey any day, even if a tad young. Wish I had loaded up on these. May still try to backfill. Curious to hear your thoughts.

[JimHow]

The 2014 Purple Baron started out really, really tight but as it opened up, very slowly, it was just beautiful. Everything you would expect from this estate in 2014, just classic Pauillac. I’m going to double blanquito my ten remaining bottles.

[JoelD]

Oof, a Double blanquito from How? I might need a quadruple then. Plenty of time to load up on these later then methinks. And let someone else cover the storage costs. But also betting I will love this wine, so I'll load up if I find the right price of course. The 2004 that Marcus brought over a few months ago is in such a lovely place right now. Beautiful minerality and just starting to develop some notes of age.

[stefan]

2014 Pichon Baron might be a good wine for Lucie and me to drink in our nineties, when our taste buds will be almost completely worn out.

[JimHow]

I still can't get over how amazing that 2011 Calon Segur was the other night.
It was in a perfect place.

[Nicklasss]

I still can't get over how amazing that 2011 Calon Segur was the other night.
It was in a perfect place.

Did it had change a lot since that first bottle in Québec City a few years ago?

How would you rate it?

All the bottle i had in the past were opened young as the wine was incredibly good for a 2011.

[JimHow]

It was absolutely amazing Nicola.
The thing is, we recognized how good it was in its infancy, that night we were dining on Quebec venison in the province.
The other night I uncorked a bottle while I was drafting my closing argument for the next morning in this really intense attempted murder case.
I woke up at 4:30am to finish my closing argument, fresh as a daisy.
Honest to goodness, it drank so, so easily. It was just brilliant.
It was EVERYTHING I look for in Bordeaux.
In all seriousness, I would love to have a discussion with Johnny Depp as to why this is his favorite wine.
Because the glories of this estate are nuanced. And you would think that a multimillionaire actor would be going for the trophy wines but not this wine that was selling in the $25 range when he first started expressing his love for it.
It has definitively eclipsed Lynch Bages as my favorite wine.
Waiting anxiously for the 2019s to appear on the shelves in NH because the Leoville Bartons and Calon Segurs usually disappear pretty quickly before the sales come later in the season.
Maybe it was the time and place, but I rated that 2011 Calon Segur from the other night easily a 95+ points.
Frankly, give me an "understated" wine like this any day of the week over some big bad Parkerized behemoth.

[stefan]

First the Wine That Shall Not Be Named and now Calon-Segur, my two favorite underpriced Bordeaux for 50 years, are being trumpeted left and right. I hate that now ! must pay a fair price for them.

[JimHow]

Still daydreaming about that 2011 Calon Segur from the other night.
It may have been the time and place and all that, but that may have been my wine of the year to date.

[JoelD]

Woty? That would be saying something considering that Haut brion event you guys had!

[JimHow]

I always count the Stuart events separately Joel! There is no chance 2011 Calon Segur will be the BWE wine of the year, we had the 2014 as a recent selection and we haven’t had many here drink it, but this wine the other night was just spectacular in its restraint and it had that ever attractive “light on its feet.” Lafite-like.