Bordeaux Wine Enthusiasts

Stefan and Lucie will be in the Bay Area around the Christmas holidays and are up for getting together for a casual BWE gathering.

Me too!

Anyone else?

Michael-P

Bill and Michael, we will try to make it, but no promises yet.

Depends exactly when. Lisa and I will be in Paris from 12/23 to 12/30. Before or after that and we are in.

SF Ed

We arrive Dec. 19 and I leave Jan. 1.

I arrive SF late 21 Dec and head back to London 1 Jan.

SF Ed: can you and Lisa do the 22nd?

Michael-P

We're leaving SF on the 22nd. Got my dates wrong. Dinner on the 21st would work for us...

SF Ed

SF Ed:

I land SFO on the 21st at 920p.

If you got your dates wrong, will you be back from Paris in time for a BWE SF dinner on the 30th?

Michael-P

I will be arriving back in the US on the afternoon of the 30th, so yes, we could do a BWE SF dinner on the 30th. Maybe that should be the plan...

SF Ed

Stefan and Lucie:

How is the 30th for you?

Anyone else in SF?

Michael-P

The 30th should be fine for us.

We have 6 of us so far.

SF Ed - any ideas on venue? I seem to recall One Market might have reasonable corkage?

Michael-P

If we are 6, I can book us into Delfina - zero corkage for me

If we are larger, then we have to look around.

I am having dinner with David and Nancy tonight - I'll ask them if they want to join us.

Let's consider it this way - I will coordinate venue and consider December 30th set, and then communicate out logistics based on numbers. I'll also reach out to some of the old guard who don't look at the board often (like CabFan, Moe, and James).

SF Ed

I'll check with our kids to see if they can join us if that is OK with all.

I can't imagine that having your kids join us would be an issue.

Great evening with David and Nancy, especially the 1989 Branaire Ducru. Quintessential Bordeaux. They don't know their calendars yet, but would very likely like to join in. Sounds like a real BWE fest coming up...

SF Ed

Things are shaping up - David and Nancy, Werner and Chris, and Peter and Victoria all want to attend but don't know if they can yet.

SF Ed

bump

Linda and I are still interested. Sunday the 30th is OK. Do we have a restaurant yet?

I haven't booked yet because I wanted to get a count. Sounds like we have:

SF Ed + 1
MichaelP +1
stefan +1
William P +1

with maybes from David + Nancy, Werner and Chris, and Peter and Victoria plus stefan's kids

stefan - what is your count?

With that in hand, I will start booking for 14 or so with a min of 8 and see what we can do. We are definitely on.

SF Ed

Two for now, Ed. I am working on our kids, but they collectively have three young uns and have yet to find a suspended animation machine for them.

Bill, how are you going over to SF from Berkeley? Maybe we can meet before and commute over or take BART depending.

I think BART over and a cab on the way back, Bill. Do you take the North Berkeley BART? That is the closest for us, although Downtown Berkeley is also fine.

It looks very likely that just Lucie & I will come.

I'll ask my daughter for her opinion. We might take the downtown berkeley bart and meet you in the bart station closest to the restaurant and share the cab ride. I'll check.

We now have three: stefan + Lucie + stefanJr.

Good to know, stefan

SF Ed

We now have a location and logistics for the BWE SF December 30th offline!

We will dine at 6:30 at Garcon, a French restaurant in my neighborhood and close to BART. http://www.garconsf.com/index.php?page=home
We've negotiated a $10 corkage and they know we will be bringing many bottles.
Only downside is stems - their stems suck. I will bring some but encourage others to bring their own stems.

I need to confirm a total count by Friday, so hopefully everyone is still in:

SF Ed +1
MichaelP +1
stefan +2
William P +1

plus I have emails out to CabFan, aimeedogdog, and David and Nancy who were all tentative

SF Ed

Thanks, Ed. Lucie, stefanJr, and I are looking forward to it.

Me and Nalan too!

Is there any wine theme? Bring what ya got?

Michael-P

How about old and tasty? And if you don't have old, young and tasty?

SF Ed

Sounds good, Ed, as long as "old" doesn't mean "as old as stefan". I have one here as old as stefanJr, though, but it is from Napa rather than Bdx. I do want to bring one young one in honor of you ('90 Filhot Creme de Tete) if that is OK--I pick it up tomorrow at Wine Bid; today was my "pick up from PC" day.

I'm planning on bringing a 1999 Beaucastel Blanc VV, one that is as old as Lisa (1967 Montrose), and maybe a 1982 Pontensac.

1990 Filhot Creme de Tete is more than OK

SF Ed

Ok, see you at 6:30 today. Any word on the othe

Sorry I didn't see the request for old in time to grab some, so I only have 2 red Bordeaux, one from the 80s and one from the 90s. Hopefully both tasty. Blind of course. And a backup Bordeaux just in case.

Michael-P

SF Ed:

Hopefully its OK that we are now 3: We are bringing our San Francisco host, Ann.
She is a foodie/wino very good friend that's very nice and lots of fun. She has another 90's Bordeaux we are bringing, blind again.
Thanks,

Michael-P

Just got in from Paris - everything is a go for tonight.

Michael-P - I doubt an additional person will be an issue - worst case scenario is that we will all have to squish together a bit. The more the merrier!

A reminder for locals - if you like decent stems please bring them as the restaurant stems are poor.

SF Ed

Unfortunately, we have no stems to bring.

so how was it?

It was lots of fun. A full house, loads of very good BDX, and the usual BWE comradery. I didn't take notes, but I am sure others did and will post shortly.

SF Ed

C'mon, Stefan... Let's have those notes!

I could not take notes on all the wines we drank, particularly the later ones. It was a great night; stefanJr's first BWE offline. Ed arranged a nice venue for the dinner at a bistro near his home. Eleven people came, including board members Ed & Lisa; stefan, Lucie, & stefanJr; MichaelP & Nalan; Bill & Linda. It is always fun to get together with these guys and gals. We drank I dunno how many bottles; maybe 15?

Telegraphic notes on a few:

99 Beaucastel Blanc. Lovely older white Rhone.

01 Grivot Vosnes-Romanee Beaux Monts. Solid, earthy, tasty black fruit all over.

67 Montrose. The fruit, mostly red raspberries, is still there.

75 Ducru. Softer than the Montrose, but less expressive, especially in the nose, which disappointed me because the nose can be ethereal.

82 Potensac. Has held up well; VG.

89 La Lagune. Very good, as always, but better to be drunk through a meal than as one of many.

90 Pavie Macquin. Something was wrong with this bottle; probably heat damaged.

88 Cos d'Estournel. Green pepper and roasted fruit; VG.

97 La Mondotte. Lots of leather and surprisingly strong--it almost assaults you.

04 St. Innocent 7 Springs Special Selection. Very powerful for an 04 Oregon Pinot and good in all respects.

96 Sociando Mallet. What red blooded BWEer does not love this BWE favorite? It is now ready to drink even if it will outlive stefanJr.

77 Chateau St. Jean Alexander VAlley Johanisberberger Riesling Robert Young Vineyard. I don't remember; probably I was sinking when this came around.

90 Filhot Creme de Tete. This brought me back to life. This is one of the best Sauternes I have drunk (François' son Frederic also called it one of the best Sauternes he had drunk). The last bottle I drank was old and tired, perhaps due to poor storage, but this one was perfect.

Thanks, Ed, for setting this up. Welcome back, Michael. We hope you locate back in the USA.