Bordeaux Wine Enthusiasts

I'm sure I'm going to miss some, and I welcome BWEers to chime in with their own lists, but here are my Top Ten BWE moments that are coming to mind, among hundreds, from the past nine years.

#20. The BWE Harvard Professors

Back in 2004 we had a young undergraduate from Harvard who joined our site briefly. She invited us to teach a Bordeaux class in a wine class being taught on the Radcliffe campus. I immediately accepted the invitation. i gathered up "the BWE professors": Steve, Josh, Eric, and Mike McNamara. We brought a bunch of beautiful wines: '83 Lafite was in there, '86 Gruaud Larose, there was a great Sauternes in there, oh man, help me oiut profs, I'm drawing a blank, there were some great wines. Anyways, i was really taken by this group of Harvard kids. They were really inspiring. They were young, bright, enthusiastic, completely unpretentious, innocent. Just really good kids. Absolutely no pretentions. They knew nothing about wine. But they were wide eyed and enthusiastic and appteciative. It was an incredibly fun time. Steve gave a little talk about Sauternes. I gave a little background on Bordeaux. I remember referring to the '86 Gruaud as a "big" wine and the students reacted. they loved it! Finally, at one point, I pulled out a 1989 Lynch Bages. I told them this was my favorite wine in the world. We talked it up a bit before pouring the wine. This wine can sometimes be variable. But when it is on, it is as good as it gets, in my humble opinion. On this afternoon, this baby was smokin'!! It was 1989 Lynch at its best. Anyway.... So after we poured the Lynch, and each of the twenty students had a glass, I turned to Mike McNamara. On a whim, without any notice, I said: "Mike, why don't you lead us through this, tell us what we are tasting...." Words cannot describe what happened next. It was one of the most beautiful experiences ever. We had these twenty 21-year-old Harvard kids, sipping '89 Lynch.... Without missing a beat, Mike McNamara went into this incredibly beautiful description of the wine. Swirling it, sniffing it, sipping it. The young Harvard kids-- just great All American kids, no Ivy League pretentions here-- sitting there opened mouthed, soaking in every word of Mikes beautiful descriptions of the wine.

All of the wines were spectacular tht afternoon, but the students came up to us afterwards and kept talking about the 1989 Lynch. we had just given twenty kids their wine epiphany.

It was a great BWE moment!

That was a great BWE moment!

Jim, you posted this on the old site 3/9/04:

The final wine list for the Harvard presentation!

1981 Chateau Leoville Las Cases (St. Julien)
1981 Chateau Lafite Rothschild (Pauillac)
1986 Chateau Gruaud Larose (St. Julien)
1986 Chateau Recougne (2 bottles)(Bordeaux Superior)
1989 Chateau Lynch Bages (Pauillac)
1989 Chateau Leoville Las Cases (St. Julien)
1990 Chateau Suduiraut (Sauternes)
1996 Chateau Sociando Mallet (2 bottles) (Haut-Medoc)
1996 Clos du Marquis (St. Julien)
1996 Chateau Pontet Canet (Pauillac)
1996 Chateau Lafon Rochet (St. Estephe)
1997 Chateau Mouton Rothschild (Pauillac)
2000 Chateau d'Issan (2 bottles) (Margaux)

Ah yes...

Wow, those Harvard kids drank well that day!

They invited me back at the end of the semester but I couldn't make it.

#19: The Anonymous Benefactor

The annual convention in New York City in the spring of 2003 was our largest. 101 BWEers attended the Saturday night dinner. Allan Meadows was there. The war had just broken out, there were some tensions with France. I was doing interviews with magazines. Harry, Francois and Alex flew over from Europe. The excitement over the event reached a fever pitch as members announced the wines they were bringing: Petrus. Cheval Blanc. Margaux. And on and on. A couple weeks before the weekend I got an email from a BWEer. He wanted to keep his identity secret. He wanted to donate six bottles apiece of six great wines from 1982 for a blind tasting: Mouton, La Dominique, Branaire Ducru, Cos d'Estournel, Ducru Beaucaillou, and Leoville las Cases. I was stunned. It quickly became evident that he was not joking about this. For two days I tried to talk him out of it. He insisted. The "Anonymous Benefactor" brought his 36 bottles of wines from the 1982 vintage. All of the wines were spectacular. Mouton prevailed in the blind tasting voting results, but the Branaire was tremendous, far exceeding expectations. The gift of the Anonymous Benefactor to the NYC '03 blind tasting will always stand as a towering monument to the generosity that personifies BWE, and merits its place in my Top Ten Favorite Moments from the "Old" BWE....

One of the really good moments was the long thread where we discussed the issues concerning compulsive wine buying disorder. Hiding purchases from our better halves, justifying purchases to ourselves, accepting self-delusion etc. I'll see if I can find it.

I can tell I am going to enjoy these reminiscences. Will be looking forward to this post every day.

My recollection was that the Branaire won the '82 vote, beating out the Mouton... no? Or maybe I am just remembering my own preference.

Yeah, a bunch of us tried to go from Memorial Day to Labor day without buying any wine one summer. None of us mad it. I came close, but had to ask for special dispensation from Jim to buy a couple of mailing list wines that would have dumped me otherwise. How much my perspective has changed since then...

Oh that was so freaking funny Joe, i forgot about that....

Joe, that is a great memory! I was also thinking of the "Whoa Nellie" post. Anyone remember that one?

Vaguely, Bob, can you refresh our memories on that one.

I'm pretty sure that Jay will remember as I think that he was part of it. The thread had something to do with over-buying and then someone said "Whoa Nellie". Scott might remember.

Whoa Nelly! On buying wine:

http://groups.msn.com/BordeauxWineEnthu ... =0&CDir=-2

How do I post a link so it shows up with the words instead of the URL?

Until we come up with a better solution (hopefully before the old BWE goes away entirely), here's a link to the old site search engine:

http://bordeauxwine.org/bwe/swish.cgi

Phil, maybe we can put this link somewhere on the menu bar?

David,

If you want words instead of a URL you do the following:

[*url=the website adress]the words you want as the hyperlink[/url*]

I put the * in there so that you could see the code.

It was a lot of fun educating the Harvard youth.They were a great bunch of students.I think we taught them that wine was not just an alcholic beverage but more like a piece of fine art.

The Offline in Chicago was a lot of fun.I finally had the chance to met a lot of great BWE members.


Regards,Mike

Rieslingfan wrote:David,

If you want words instead of a URL you do the following:

[*url=the website adress]the words you want as the hyperlink[/url*]

I put the * in there so that you could see the code.

..or

Like this?
Old BWE Search Engine

Thanks, I knew there must be a trick to this!

In addition to the NYC convention, there must be a mention of an NY offline. There are so many to choose from. I recall the first time that I met Jim as we sipped his 1989 Montrose in sheer delight along with Paul North's foil wrapped 1990 Margaux. Mr. Tang's with Pappa Doc at the controls. Fratellis's with Gio, Pappa Doc, John Nelson and maybe even Ben, Brodway, Adele and others. Henry's Evergreen with Joe Belmaati and Jackdaw. Any offline with Arv. Too hard to choose, but Fratelli's was very special.

I know Nic and the whoopie pie will be on the list

a few other memories

The PC dinner wih Alfred Tesseron was so special

When Jim carried on about The Sucker I thought I was going to wet my pants laughing so hard

The BWE attempt to buy all 03 PC and controll the market

An off-line at Roberto's in Oak Park with the best Burgundy outside of France I have ever had

rick

Oh yes the infamous Nic moments. Didn't he bail from Mr. Tangs for a special haircut in Chinatown?

Claret wrote:Oh yes the infamous Nic moments. Didn't he bail from Mr. Tangs for a special haircut in Chinatown?

Yes, he did. He also arrived with an 88 Haut Brion that even a severely hungover mr vino managed to enjoy. Another great BWE gathering with PD at the helm.

Thank goodness for the edit function here, I realized that a mere ten favorite moments is woefully inadequate. Even twenty will only scratch the surface.

#18. Negotiation of the Purchase of the 1995 d'Yquem at Napa '02

Back at the annual convention in Napa CabFan had ordered a magnum of '81 Pichon Lalande, that Gwynneth Paltro of Bordeaux wines, from a local wine warehouse place that was selling fine wines on consignment. He wanted to get ahold of it before the Saturday night dinner but couldn't get there before the dinner at Brix restaurant. So Ben, Nicolas, and I offered to pick it up for him. The three of us walked into this huge warehouse filled with cases and individual bottles of fine Bordeaux. It was a scene out of a Quentin Tarantino movie, as Ben began to negotiate the purchase of a magnum of '95 d'Yquem with the young owners of the place who, we pretty quickly figured out, were hungry for business. The young French-Canadian mobster from Quebec was roaming through the warehouse while the owners played hardball in their sale of the d'Yquem. I finally took over the negotiations and Ben and I played good-cop-bad-cop, with Ben expressing an interest in purchasing the magnum, and I feigning exasperation and threatening to walk out. We finally convinced them to knock off a hundred dollars off the price when Nicolas decided to buy an '86 Grand-Puy-Lacoste from them as well. Then this stunningly sultry young tall blond California girl named Holly or Hannah or something like that started flirting with us, she was like rubbing up against me trying to convince us to take her to the Saturday night dinner. It was a surreal situation, but we left the place with our dignity reasonably intact and the magnum of '95 d'Yquem in hand-- my first d'Yquem ever-- which we uncorked the next night at the Saturday night convention dinner. It was yet another feat of incredible generosity from Ben Nelson, what a great treat!

Wow, Jim, you drank them young then!

Oh,
and did you ever make it with Holly or hannah.....?

i think Nicolas has a clearer recollection of Hannah, Claudius.

#17: Nick and the Whoopie Pie Incident

When I look back at it, Napa '02 was one of our crazier conventions. Nick was in a psychotic mood that weekend. On the drive back from Brix after the Saturday night convention dinner, we were crammed into my old Lincoln LS that we had driven cross-country, my buddy Steve the non-drinker driving, I recall Arv, MichaelP, Nick, myself, and Ben in the vehicle, Setab too, there may have been one or two others as well, it was really crammed. This was about the time we were beginning to lose Ben to the Burgundy Devil. It was late at night on a dark road in Napa Valley, and at one point MichaelP posed the idea of dumping Ben on the side of the road in punishment for his betrayal of Bordeaux. Michael's partner in crime Nick was solidly behind MichaelP's proposal, and it would have undoubtedly happened had the vehicle pulled over, but Steve deftly continued to drive the vehicle safely back to the hotel without further incident. Back at the hotel, Nick performed his legendary act of pulling down his trousers, captured for posterity by Whuzzup's camera, a full view blocked only by Steve's insertion of the Maine whoopie pie into the picture.

We need to get Arvind back into the fold

I was just thinking the same thing regarding Arv. Anyone heard from Bages? I just sent RightBrain a note asking him to join but I don't know if he will.

Roberto

Arvind got marrried a year or two ago. He seems to be keeping a low profile. It woud be great to hear from him again.

I remember Arv working on Wall Street and living near the WTC and being REALLY PISSED OFF about 9\11.

Been so long I could be wrong.

But No One can forget that photo of Nick and the Whoopie Pie! I think I literally almost ROFL. Didn't Jim make some excuse about them?

I was in the room when Nick dropped his pants, and never even knew the event occurred until several days later when somebody noticed it when Ben posted his pictures from the Napa '02 weekend.

There have been claims of photoshop manipulation

I think almost as funny as the fact that his pants are down is the look on his face.

#16: Buying '96 Ducru from some guy in New Jersey named "brodway".

Fairly early on in the life of BWE a guy with the screenname "brodway" appeared on the old BWE. He was in the business. He seemed pretty savvy. Street-smart. A wiseguy. Anyway, one day he reported that he had a chance to get his hands on some '96 Ducru at a good price. Just tell him how much we needed, he'd pack it up and ship it out, send him a check when you had a chance. I was skeptical. I wrote an email to JScott, who was also considering getting in on the Ducru deal. I asked Scott, what do you think about this brodway guy from New Jersey, he's never met us, but he's saying he'll ship some Ducru to us and we can just pay him whenever we get around to it. Totally on the honor system, even though he had never met any of us. Scott said, let's go for it! A week later we got our neatly-packaged cases of '96 Ducru, and of course promptly mailed out our checks. We met Emil subsequently on several occasions, of course, he is a personification of the spirit of BWE: Extremely generous, friendly, funny, great depth of knowledge of wine. A great guy. Was very involved in the organization of NYC '03. Just noticed that Emil joined us here on BWE tonight, I hope we can raise a glass or two of some beauties from the northern Medoc in '09, Emil!

This actually reminds me of another great moment. Josh Wertlieb posted an alert about an incredible sale of Lafleur at the PA Liquor stores (for those that are unaware, the state of PA has a monopoly on wine sales). They had marked the Lafleur 99 down to $53 a bottle, and the 2000 was also marked down (although I don't recall the exact price of the 2000).

http://groups.msn.com/BordeauxWineEnthu ... sage=62460

I immediately called my sister who was living in PA at the time, and called around to various LCB stores to see if they had any stock. I then sent her after those, and had her buy up anything she could get. She probably thought I was crazy at the time, driving around to different liquor stores on her lunch hour, but I ended up getting about seven bottles. It has also been posted on the Parker board, so people were going after it quickly. Three of them were for Josh, since he provided the tip. I ended up having the three sent up to a relative in NYC, who met up with Josh for the exchange.

There are two bottles left from the four that I kept, which are now in lockdown in the US.

#15. Hey Joe, where you going with that wine glass in your hand.

I don't know how many of you know this, but we have an internationally acclaimed song-writer/music producer in our midst by the name of Joe Belmaati. Just google his name sometime and you'll learn all about him. You wouldn't know that he is famous because he is about the most self-effacing person you've ever met. Joe hosted a Montrachet event in Denmark a few years back that Whuzzup attended and Ben has never been the same since. Joe was in Times Square one weekend to attend the Grammy Awards and I stopped by to meet with him on a Saturday afternoon, I gave him a bottle of '99 Ducru that I had bought that morning up on Lexington Avenue for the room, but told him that he could only drink it if he shared it with Avril Lavigne or Norah Jones (although, as someone here pointed out, Avril was only eighteen at the time). Anyway, we hung out for an afternoon in the lounge at the "W" Hotel like we were old buddies even though we had only met for the first time. I'm always amazed at the dynamic that seems to occur on this site, the good people and friendships we seem to attract here. Joe epitomizes the spirit of generosity and good will that is the hallmark of BWE.

Jim, can you find 14 other moments?

I got one : when the BD preferred the 1988 Vieux Chateau Certan to his all-time favorite...

For thr trouser down event, I repeat, I did that to see if everybody where ''hammered'' that night, and it was the case as nobody notice. By the way, maybe the picture let you believe that the trouser were down for 10 minutes, but in fact, it was more 10 seconds.

Nic