BWE London 2023: Saturday Night

[JimHow]

It was a BWE Saturday night for the ages….

[JimHow]

We started with 2008 Dom Perignon and Cristal.
We then went into the 2019 blind tasting, with Giscours coming in first (I’m not shocked, I’ve been thrilled by that wine), followed by Montrose, d’Issan, and Lynch.

The 1989 Lynch outclassed the others in the 1980s Lynch vertical, with the aromatic 1983 coming in second and the 1985, surprisingly, pulling up the rear.

And then the wine orgy began….

[SF Ed]

The evening was completely insane in the true spirit of BWE. I think the image Jim posted above with me, him, Nic and a double magnum of 1975 Petrus courtesy of Ian captures it.

Starter Champagne is always nice, but 2008 Cristal and 2008 Dom is better than nice. The DP was excellent but the Cristal was tops for me and will be profound 10 years from now. Tightly wound but balanced and long.

I always feel constrained/intimidated by blind tasting (because I suck at it) but we had a great horizontal of 2019s that again show me that I am utterly incapable of evaluating young wines, especially Bordeaux. I rated the Montrose top - I would not at all be surprised if it ends up better than the 1989 or 1990.

The Lynch Bages' of the 80's was super fun. I liked the 1988 best with great fruit and a light touch of Brett but its hard to say no to the elegant 1983 or the powerful (and still closed to me) 1989.

Ian served some Pomerols blind which frustrated me but made sense so he could let us taste the 1975 Petrus blind. A truly great wine and from double magnum there was more than enough for everyone. That flight also had the 1998 VCC which was spectacular and one of my wines of the night.

We then had some very old wines courtesy of Tim and MichaelP. I am a huge fan of super old wine and my personal wine of the night was in that group, a 1937 Pichon Lalande. Long, balanced, elegant, smooth, classic. There really is nothing I love more than a great old wine.

Then came the onslaught of left bankers, where some of the highlights for me were a double magnum of 1983 Gruaud Larose and a 1986 Las Cases. So many great wines.

We had great food and spectacular wine service - not the normal free for all we have at BWE events. I like the free for all aspects we normally have but the flights all made sense and having great wine service made that work.

And I need to make a public apology to our Benevolent Dictator - I interrupted Jim's annual speech and disrupted his flow. I should not have done that. Jim - I am sorry.

It was great to see all the folks who were able to make it to London and I look forward to seeing the BWE family (and as Ian said, it is a family) at many events in the future!

SF Ed

[JimHow]

Ha ha no problem Ed, it was great to see you and Lisa and everyone else, what an incredible trip. I’m at Heathrow now, always a poignant time moving on from these conventions. Incredible gratitude to Ian for his hospitality. I’ll post more later.

[JimHow]

Friday night, courtesy of Gail.

[JimHow]

Saturday night, more from Gail.

“BWE is about the people…”
Jean-Nicolas Maltais

[tim]

Back in Paris. All I can say is wow. Wow. Wow.

[Comte Flaneur]

Another fabulous evening, I don’t know how we navigated so many wines

One clear winner last night head and shoulders above everything else:

Howard’s 1983 Cheval Blanc, which was clearly superior to the Petrus and the Petrus was quite a good bottle.

The Petrus was much softer than I was expecting, so in a pretty good place, but it began to fade a bit towards the end of the night.

But in the right bank flight both the VCCs - the 1989 and 1998 - were put in the shade by their more illustrious flight mates - but they were both v good.

Michael’s 1937 Pichon Lalande merits a special mention as well, drinking beautifully.

My other favourite wine was Tom’s 1982 Branaire - I so love that wine! And this bottle was drinking beautifully

None of the 1980s Lynches were in top form imho, especially my 1985 which was not nearly as good as the one I drank in the same room in February. Don’t get me wrong they were lovely, and such a relief to sip on the 1983 - my wotf - after the 2019s.

If truth be told I don’t think we learned anything useful from the 2019 horizontal, even though it was fun to conduct the experiment.These wines are big and monolithic. Maybe do this again in ten years time.

The other DM mag the 1983 Gruaud Larose was not a great bottle imo…it tasted tinny.

I thought both the 2008 DP and Cristal were far too young to drink and therefore enjoy now.

But there were no duff wines, in a huge line up.

[JimHow]

Just landed back in Boston.
Again, Ian, and everyone, thanks for a spectacular trip.
Will report in more tomorrow.

[Michael-P]

Yup. Epic. BWE gatherings always have good food and amazing wine, and even more wonderful people (family), but once in awhile the wines seem to be off the charts. BWE London was one of those occasions. Of course by organizing everything that went so flawlessly, Ian deserves a lot of the credit, but his generosity in wine sharing was above and beyond. All hail Ian!

Michael-P

[JimHow]

Ian was amazing, don’t forget, he was working by day and hanging out with us by night. Hail Ian!

[AlexR]

Yes, Indeed, Ian did us very proud.

AR

[Nicklasss]

Ian was amazing, don’t forget, he was working by day and hanging out with us by night. Hail Ian!

Ok. That makes it even more spectacular! Hail Ian!

[Blanquito]

Ian Amstad: Saving the world's banking system by day, drinking and sharing the world's finest wines by night!

[JoelD]

Amazing night. I really enjoyed all of the 2019's tasted blind. They started out very similarly in glass, with wine #1(which ended up being the Montrose) the outlier that stood out to me in good ways on the nose and palate. Great minerality, light on it's feet, nice but not overpowering cassis. That was my choice. The lynch got super structured and tightened up. Both Margaux were quite similar to me. I think the 2019 will be a great vintage and I'm glad I listened to all on this board who proclaimed it. I bought a lot.

The 1980's Lynch lineup was also great.
-The 1983 started as my early favorite, amazing and complex nose with great spices, bit leaner on the palate but fell off in my glass a tad.
-Sadly this bottle of 1985 was too green, which happens.
-The 1986 started out structured with good fruit but leaned out.
-The 1988 started out slow but unfurled into the most balanced of the lineup.
-The 1989 was a tad closed to me. Truly a 50-100 year wine.
For this night I chose the 1988 as my favorite, maybe recency bias since it got better in glass while the 1983 fell off.

The blind right bank blind flight was great as well.
-Wine#1 (1975 Petrus) started quite primary but was clearly great juice. We were curious what this was and knew it was one of Ian's double mags based on decanter size. The first large pour in my glass unfurled amazingly over 30 minutes into a balanced, big, mineral Pomerol. Probably my #2 WOTN.
-Wine #2 (1983 Cheval Blanc) had everything I wanted in an aged wine. So many spices and tobacco, but with great sweet fruit behind it. Amazing wine and probably my WOTN.
-Wine #3 (1989 VCC) didn't come out that strong out of the gate, it was lean with some cola which I'm not partial to, however this unfurled into a pretty wine, but lean. Other's liked it more than I did.
-Wine #4 (1998 VCC) was a great wine, albeit young. Luckily not closed. Great fruit. Looking forward to see where this goes but I think I'll hold my bottles for at least 1-2 blanquitos. It also suffered from being next to extremely stiff competition.

After that we did the older flight. Sadly not much to say about the older wines for me as I wasn't that into them. Although the 64 Pavie Decesse came around in the glass a bit.
However, the 1937 Pichon Lalande had one of the best noses of the night. Similar to the 1983 Lynch and 1983 Cheval in that way. Super light on it's feet but just an array of complex notes that was pretty much unrivaled on the evening. The palate was definitely a bit over the hill, but still totally drinkable. Not a true flaw to be found in a 96 year old wine. Nuts. Maybe my #3 WOTN

Then it really became a free for all. Others that I enjoyed a lot during this were the double mag of 1983 Gruaud Larose. It had great Cordier funk, and was maybe a tad tinny on the palate as Ian thought but still quite good. The 2000 Cos, 1998 Las Cases and 1990 Haut Bailly at the end were all great Bordeaux that I would be happy to open any night.

I'm glad we opened my 1990 Haut Bailly at the end (yes, somehow we needed more wine!) as I brought both for Nicola(the wine he brought to the very first BWE convention and Daniela's birthday(birth year). It turned out great and was towards the top of the evening for me.

I'll also apologize for getting distracted by Howards interesting dessert wines and interrupting the BD's great stories about Nicola and the first convention.

Just an epic night. My first Petrus. Out of Double Magnum. Ian is a legend. Great recent auction buy by Howard on the 1983 Cheval Blanc. 1937 Pichon was such a treat from MP. I think those have to be my 3 wines of the night. The 1988/1983 Lynch, 1998 VCC and 1990 Haut Bailly were also top wines in a tier below the top 3.

Thanks to everyone for including me and Daniela in a great trip to London, and Paris before that. I hope to see many of you again in the fall somewhere and hopefully the others that couldn't join for this one. I love the BWE family.

[Nicklasss]

Thank you Joel for the report. I did not took many notes, but will come back with comments soon.

After having taste the 1990 Haut Bailly in 2001, i was amazed how good the same wine was last Saturday, 22 years later... thank you for bringing that great bottle, among my favorite of the night!

[AKR]

Great pictures!

[JimHow]

Still battling this flu bug and the small mountain of paperwork on my desk, working on my report of the once in a lifetime trip hosted by Ian in London. These past two trips in Ft. Lauderdale and London have demonstrated that BWE is a wine website unparalleled by any other.