Pre-Pre BWE Dinner in Paris with Tim

[JoelD]

Dani and I stopped for 2 days in Paris before heading to London. It's been great to get over my jet lag here and eat some awesome food. After spending the day sightseeing and wineshop hopping/tasting, we went to dinner with Tim at a great 7 course restaurant called Septime which I definitely recommend. The Somm and pairings were on point.

The two highlights of the night though, were catching up with Tim who had some great BWE stories to get in the mood and then the surprise 1955 Pape Clement that he brought. The fill was a tad low, but he was able to get the cork out cleanly like a pro. On first sniff he said it would be good. Going back to it after an hour of Audouze-ing, he exclaimed that it would be awesome.

Long story short, it was. The nose was intoxicating. Understated but extremely deep. Bit of cigar box to go with some great florality. I could just smell that it would be a lovely, balanced wine. Color was perfect. On the palate, it still had a bit of fruit left and good acidity and structure. Very long finish. I would give the nose 1-2 points higher than the wine. Great treat. And great pairing with the lamb two ways course. Cheese course also went well and we finished with a few desserts.

This was a near perfect night until we left the restaurant and all walked towards our places. We promptly had to stop and turn around when a lot of people were running from the protests/tear gas. It got a bit scary for a minute but luckily we had Tim there to guide us all the way around on the metro. Crisis averted. Sucks that this is going on. There is a trash epidemic because of the strikes and the protesters light it on fire at night. Hopefully this gets figured out soon.

[tim]

Great warm-up with Dani and Joel! I decided at the last minute to bring the 55 Pape Clement as the fill was low and I didn't want to risk traveling with it. The wine was really excellent despite the low shoulder fill. The nose was stunning, powerful, structured. It fell a little flat on the palate, but overall a fantastic wine, especially for a wine that is almost 70 years old. I recall asking Neal Martin at a dinner with Ian what his favorite old vintage was, and he replied the 55 vintage. If this wine is any example, it is holding up nicely.

Indeed, we didn't know it at the time, but as we were walking back from the restaurant, we were headed toward the epicenter of the evening protests. There was some activity down the road, and when people started running towards us with the smell of tear gas, we decided to reverse course. I saw later on twitter that we were just a block from the major action. We decided to walk a couple blocks then take a metro, which thankfully was not impacted by the protests. Didn't get home until well after midnight!

Thank you Dani for getting up at 4am to make the reservation at the hard-to-reserve Septime. It was a pleasure.

Looking forward to seeing everyone Friday!

[JCNorthway]

a great 7 course restaurant called Septime

Lucky you! We were there not long after it opened and actually walked in with no reservation and had a great dinner. On subsequent trips, we were not aggressive enough to wake at 4:00 am to snag a reservation, so the first meal has been our only one.

[barsacpinci]

Sounds like a wonderful dinner! I was there once during a trash strike - not nice.

[Musigny 151]

The last interesting Pape Clement for me was 1998. After that it turned to the dark side, and turned with a vengeance. Seems they might be emerging

I do wish they would change the name. Pope Clement was a vicious anti Semite, as well as a seriously nasty piece of work.

[marcs]

The last interesting Pape Clement for me was 1998. After that it turned to the dark side, and turned with a vengeance. Seems they might be emerging

I do wish they would change the name. Pope Clement was a vicious anti Semite, as well as a seriously nasty piece of work.

Which of the many Pope Clements are you referring to? And if it is Clement V, do we have to boycott Chateauneuf du Pape?

[stefan]

Typical dinner with Tim, Joel. He always seems to have some old grape juice he wants to get rid of.