BWE London: Saturday night 2019 Blind Tasting....

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Tue Mar 14, 2023 3:25 pm

Ian, I think I might have another 2019 to add to the blind tasting that you might find interesting.
Patrick, is it too late to pack your 2019 Branaire?
Would it be too much trouble to do a blind tasting at the beginning (after the Champagne) of the following 2019s?

2019 Lynch Bages
2019 Montrose
2019 Branaire
2019 d'Issan
2019 Mystery Wine

It seems to me the only issue is the Lynch 375s would require us to decant them all.
I'm more than happy to add a 2019 Lynch if I can source it in 750 format in London.

Or, we can just do the three bottle tasting we've been planning. I just thought it might give us a little extra exposure to Farr's "greatest vintage ever...."

Usually we do the blind tasting at the beginning and wait til later in the dinner to disclose the results, as this allows me to "discuss" the voting with "impressionable" voters.

JoelD · Post by **JoelD** » Tue Mar 14, 2023 3:38 pm

I'll bring the d'Issan. And can also bring the Branaire if Patrick can't. I know Ian was also asking about me bringing 375's of the Montrose. But we never followed up on that part.

If you guys can just let me know exactly which to bring by Wednesday afternoon then I can bring any or all of the above!

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Tue Mar 14, 2023 3:40 pm

I’ll bring a 750 of Montrose, Joel.
I’m going to bring a mystery 2019 as well that I think would be fun to drink blind on Saturday night.

JoelD · Post by **JoelD** » Tue Mar 14, 2023 4:17 pm

Yes, I knew you were planning on that. It just sounded before like Ian had something in mind for 375's for this tasting as well. Possibly a comparative between 375 vs 750? Or he was planning on 375's of the Lynch and wanted the Montrose to be the same size. I was unclear. This may have gotten scrapped. No worries at all from my end, I was just trying to accommodate what was requested.

Blanquito · Post by **Blanquito** » Tue Mar 14, 2023 4:30 pm

I can bring a 750 of the 19 Branaire, happy to do it especially as Branaire has become my poor man’s Lynch Bages/rich man’s Cantemerle.

RPCV · Post by **RPCV** » Tue Mar 14, 2023 4:45 pm

Would love to see the 2019 Giscours and GPL in that line up

JoelD · Post by **JoelD** » Tue Mar 14, 2023 5:24 pm

RPCV wrote: ↑Tue Mar 14, 2023 4:45 pm Would love to see the 2019 Giscours and GPL in that line up

Good idea. I just saw some Giscours at a local shop for a good price. Maybe I will nab that and bring as well.

I'll leave the Branaire to you, Patrick and will bring the d'Issan.

Blanquito · Post by **Blanquito** » Tue Mar 14, 2023 5:30 pm

Actually, I’ll can bring a 19 GISCOURS easier than a Branaire.

Comte Flaneur · Post by **Comte Flaneur** » Tue Mar 14, 2023 7:19 pm

What we can do is ask Mathieu the sommelier to do the bIind tasting for us - he specialises in that kind of thing - if we drop the bottles off to him early - I am planning to do so anyway - so my Lynches out of 375s won’t be clear from the mix

I was also thinking we should do this blind and we can all individually rank our wines, it would be a lot of fun.

As for the menu, it will be something like

Goijons with the champagne
A starter dish
A lamb or beef dish, then
Cheese

He suggested fish for a starter dish but I am not so sure…I suggest we skip dry whites because we will have so much wine any way.

I also suggest we do the Lynch vertical after the 2109 horizontal

Thoughts?

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Tue Mar 14, 2023 7:25 pm

Sounds great! Yes let's do six 2019s blind after the Champagne, then go into the Lynches.

So...

2019 Lynch Bages
2019 Montrose
2019 Mystery Wine
2019 d'Issan
2019 Gloria
2019 Giscours (?)

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Tue Mar 14, 2023 7:27 pm

I'll be curious to see if you can guess the Mystery Wine, Ian, my only clue is that it is 2019 and it is Bordeaux.

RPCV · Post by **RPCV** » Tue Mar 14, 2023 7:30 pm

Wish I was going. A March madness single elimination theme might be cool with an even number of wines. Have fun all and safe travels...

JoelD · Post by **JoelD** » Tue Mar 14, 2023 7:59 pm

Comte Flaneur wrote: ↑Tue Mar 14, 2023 7:19 pm
I also suggest we do the Lynch vertical after the 2019 horizontal

Thoughts?

Sounds good, Ian. I just need to know what people want me to bring out of my options. Please speak up or I'm just going to take my best guess!

1) It sounds like we don't need my 375 2019 Montrose's since Jim is bring a 750 right?

2) I can bring 2019 d'Issan and also 2019 Branaire if requested. Or I could grab a 2019 Giscours instead of Branaire. Which 2 of these 3?

3) Which Lynch Bages did we settle on me bringing for the vertical? I can definitely bring the 1985, or the 1986 if it's needed but my preference is the former since it's more easily accessible. Happy to bring whichever we need most though.

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Tue Mar 14, 2023 8:05 pm

As far as I’m concerned Joel it sounds like we just need one bottle each of the 2019s, I don’t think you need to bring more Montrose.

I vote for the Giscours over the Branaire as I thought the Giscours was splendid and I’m curious to see how it matches up against the Mystery Wine, Lynch, Montrose, etc.

I’m bringing the 1989 Lynch. Either the 85 or 86 is fine with me, although it’s been a while since I’ve had the 85 and wouldnt mind drinking it.

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Tue Mar 14, 2023 8:08 pm

Wish you guys could make it, RP!

Blanquito · Post by **Blanquito** » Tue Mar 14, 2023 8:41 pm

Sorry, I misspoke, I have the 2019 Giscours (not the Gloria).

RPCV · Post by **RPCV** » Tue Mar 14, 2023 8:45 pm

JimHow wrote: ↑Tue Mar 14, 2023 8:08 pm Wish you guys could make it, RP!

Thanks Jim.

We would love to make as the better half lived and studied in London. A few competing priorities, I afraid.

JoelD · Post by **JoelD** » Tue Mar 14, 2023 9:07 pm

Blanquito wrote: ↑Tue Mar 14, 2023 8:41 pm Sorry, I misspoke, I have the 2019 Giscours (not the Gloria).

Even better. Will save me a trip to the store. Now I just need to know if everyone wants the Branaire, or some other fun 80's Bordeaux. Maybe 89 Pichon Lalande. Or 1990 Haut Bailly etc.

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Tue Mar 14, 2023 9:25 pm

We need a sixth 2019 for the 2019 blind tasting. Branaire? GPL?

Blanquito · Post by **Blanquito** » Tue Mar 14, 2023 9:42 pm

JoelD wrote: ↑Tue Mar 14, 2023 9:07 pm
Blanquito wrote: ↑Tue Mar 14, 2023 8:41 pm Sorry, I misspoke, I have the 2019 Giscours (not the Gloria).
Even better. Will save me a trip to the store. Now I just need to know if everyone wants the Branaire, or some other fun 80's Bordeaux. Maybe 89 Pichon Lalande. Or 1990 Haut Bailly etc.

Easy! 80’s Bordeaux, the best ever!

If it helps, I can shift my 90 Leoville Barton to something else thst better matches, say, the 89 Pichon Lalande.

Musigny 151 · Post by **Musigny 151** » Tue Mar 14, 2023 10:15 pm

You do need one right bank wine.

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Tue Mar 14, 2023 10:19 pm

Agreed. I really liked the 2019 Beau Sejour Becot.

JoelD · Post by **JoelD** » Tue Mar 14, 2023 11:07 pm

Blanquito wrote: ↑Tue Mar 14, 2023 9:42 pm
Easy! 80’s Bordeaux, the best ever!

If it helps, I can shift my 90 Leoville Barton to something else thst better matches, say, the 89 Pichon Lalande.

Do you happen to have the 85 Pichon? Or 83? I have a few of the 89 and was planning on bringing one. It would be fun to have a duel mini vert/horizontal with the Lynch. See who wins between the 85s and the 89's. We'll just go ahead and mark down Jim's vote for the 89's beforehand though

Tom In DC · Post by **Tom In DC** » Wed Mar 15, 2023 11:14 pm

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Fri Mar 17, 2023 10:33 pm

So it looks like the Saturday night blind tasting will be:

2019 Lynch Bages
2019 Montrose
2019 Mystery Wine
2019 d'Issan
2019 Giscours
2019 Branaire Ducru (?)

I'll be curious to see if anyone can identify the mystery wine. It is a wine most BWEers have had before.

tim · Post by **tim** » Sat Mar 18, 2023 6:39 pm

are we limiting the blind tasting to six?

Comte Flaneur · Post by **Comte Flaneur** » Sat Mar 18, 2023 7:10 pm

No hard and fast rules Tim, but we are going to have a LOT of wine on Saturday, I mean a lot.

So I think we should bear that in mind if we want to add wines to the 2019 horizontal

We don’t want to be blotto by the time we reach the older wines

We have four bottles of Champagne between 15 people to start with and by the time we do a six bottle horizontal we will be ten bottles down already

The idea is to to the Lynch vertical after the 2019 horizontal by which time we would be almost a bottle to the good each.

After that there is plenty more to come including two d-mags

By the end of the evening we could all be horizontal!

Blanquito · Post by **Blanquito** » Sat Mar 18, 2023 7:15 pm

Given the epic quantities of wine Ian has sketched out, I’d vote for only 5 wines in the 2019 flight:
2019 Lynch Bages (Ian)
2019 Montrose (Jim)
2019 Mystery Wine (Jim)
2019 d'Issan (Joel)
2019 Giscours (Patrick)

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Sat Mar 18, 2023 7:24 pm

Agreed. Perhaps I should remove the mystery wine?
We’re going to have a lot of wine this week.

JoelD · Post by **JoelD** » Sat Mar 18, 2023 8:14 pm

I have both the d’issan and Branaire but haven’t packed yet so I can hold the Branaire back if we don’t want/need it.

I’m bringing the 86 lynch bages for the lynch vertical as well as an 89 or 90 left bank

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Sat Mar 18, 2023 8:32 pm

Yeah, I say hold off on the Branaire, Joel. My main goal at the outset was to see how the Lynch matches up against the Montrose. I think the 2019 Montrose is one of the most spectacular young wines I’ve tasted in a while and anything that is in the same league is something. I think if we do 2019 Lynch, Montrose, Giscours, and d’Issan, it’ll be a fun little blind tasting. Between the champagnes, the blind 2019s, and everything else, we are going to have an orgy of wine as it is. I’ll hold off on the mystery wine, maybe we can do another blind tasting in DC later in the year.

Comte Flaneur · Post by **Comte Flaneur** » Sat Mar 18, 2023 9:00 pm

That is going to be amazing with the 1986 also in the mix for the Lynch vertical, thanks Joel, we are only missing the 1982, because Patrick is bringing the 1983.

Blanquito · Post by **Blanquito** » Sat Mar 18, 2023 9:07 pm

Comte Flaneur wrote: ↑Sat Mar 18, 2023 9:00 pm That is going to be amazing with the 1986 also in the mix for the Lynch vertical, thanks Joel, we are only missing the 1982, because Patrick is bringing the 1983.

Can’t wait for this vertical, my 83 Lynch’s fill is almost as good as the one for Nic’s 88… I’d bring the 82 if I had one!

JoelD · Post by **JoelD** » Sat Mar 18, 2023 9:41 pm

Great, I'm very much looking forward to the 83 and 88 as I haven't had those yet. Also the 85 vs 86 and how those both stack up to the best wine ever made.

There's actually a couple of 82's in Paris at for around $300US with top shoulder fills. I'll see if I can check them out in person on Monday or Tuesday. Although based on the last bottle of the 82 I had, that's not worth it. That had a near perfect fill too. Thoughts? If a few people want to split the risk with me I'd be down.

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Sat Mar 18, 2023 9:49 pm

The 88 has historically been my second favorite Lynch, it has been a while since I’ve had it, looking forward to the Lynch vertical from “the greatest decade of wines produced in the history of mankind.”

DavidG · Post by **DavidG** » Sat Mar 18, 2023 10:08 pm

Agree on 88 Lynch. I still have half a dozen left. Every one has been quintessential Pauillac.

Blanquito · Post by **Blanquito** » Sat Mar 18, 2023 10:51 pm

I'd rather pony up for the 90 Lynch if that's not already in the works...

And if not already planned, I really enjoy doing verticals blind... let the wines themselves tell us which is the best ever!... just sayin'.

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Sat Mar 18, 2023 10:58 pm

I didn't realize the Lynch vertical was a competition.
The "Greatest Wine ever Made by Man" has been out of competition for many years, long retired in undefeated glory.
Myself, I'd like to spend some time comparing and contrasting the various vintages of Lynch from "the greatest decade ever."

JoelD · Post by **JoelD** » Sun Mar 19, 2023 1:34 am

Blanquito wrote: ↑Sat Mar 18, 2023 10:51 pm I'd rather pony up for the 90 Lynch if that's not already in the works...

And if not already planned, I really enjoy doing verticals blind... let the wines themselves tell us which is the best ever!... just sayin'.

I actually agree on both accounts. Looks like the 1990 can be had for about $340US in Paris.

Jim, we know it's no contest in the end. But might as well go through the motions to place 2nd-5th in their proper order, right?

JimHow · Post by **JimHow** » Sun Mar 19, 2023 1:37 am

Good grief… a night of blind tastings?
Young Joel, 23 years of history, I’m confident in the greatness of 1989 Lynch Bages. I’m sure the other Lynches from the 80s will be great as well, including yours and Patrick’s….

When I taste the 1988 Lynch I want to know what I’m drinking, I don’t need to be guessing which one it is.