Bordeaux Wine Enthusiasts

Ian and All,

I'm still in and can make the "Grand Event" at 6:00PM. I agree we should take a slow pace to see how these wines evolve in the glass. How many times have you seen a wine blossom from OK to Glorious with a half hour in the glass?

PD

Looks like I will not be able to make it Friday evening. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your POV), my schedule is packed Friday afternoon and the boss tells me it would not be wise to cancel a bunch of patients right now. So I will see you all Saturday evening. Anyone interested in a Saturday matinee - music or theatre?

I will be coming up to the City on Thursday (15th) afternoon. I'm trying to talk Marjorie (spousal unit) into coming up as well but since she works for Congress work demands may prevent her from attending dinner on Friday.

Chris Bublitz

If there is room for this event, please count me in. I know i have a 89 Montrose, but someone is already bringing this, so i'll find something else.

brodway wrote:If there is room for this event, please count me in. I know i have a 89 Montrose, but someone is already bringing this, so i'll find something else.

I think the event is closed but there's a waiting list Emil. Ian can give you details, but I believe Jay (Mr Vino) and SteveH are already on the list.

Comte Flaneur wrote:Rick the tasting is currently full...but happy to have you you on the waiting list...Mr Vino is first sub followed by Stevie H...but the Friday night gathering is open house...as many as wants to come

Sounds like another BWE dinner story is in the making

Please do let me/KAthy know if a third opening occurs.....though a last minut trip to NYC could be tough....so maybe we should plan Friday night which I am sure will be a lot of fun too

Thanks
Rick

I've got questions...

Is this the place for dinner Saturday night - same as where we held the '86 tasting?
Fabio Piccolo Fiore
230 E 44th St

What time are we starting?
Do you want corks pulled at any particular time?
Do you want us to decant & replace wine in the bottle after rinsing to get rid of sediment?

DavidG wrote:I've got questions...

Is this the place for dinner Saturday night - same as where we held the '86 tasting?
Fabio Piccolo Fiore
230 E 44th St

What time are we starting?
Do you want corks pulled at any particular time?
Do you want us to decant & replace wine in the bottle after rinsing to get rid of sediment?

Yes
6pm sharp, arrive 5.45pm
Yes

The wines I am bringing I plan to double decant around lunch time

6pm sounds fine. We should be able to double decant around lunch time as well. (I have a major dumpster dive into the "pile o' wine" ahead of me...)

PS - Sounds like we missed a great weekend Down East!

Sadly since I cannot attend, I am looking forward to hearing the stories and getting the reports......

And didn't that Lynch get sucker (not to be confused with the editor from WS) punched KO by a VCC once?

Here is an update - apologies to all and sundry for my sarcastic outburst on one of the other threads. I have a lot of experience with these type of events and they really do work a lot better with a strict quota of no more than 12, for the reasons I have outlined on numerous occasions. This may not be 'in the spirit of BWE' events, which have traditionally been more open-ended and inclusive affairs and perhaps we could discuss how to adjust the format for the next one assuming there is one.

On the subject of the quota I must say I have done Jacques a disservice because - looking back - he was actually the first to request the addition of his wife Jill when the quota had reached 12. So my apologies to Jacques, and now that Jay can't make it Jill now slots into the 12th place. Blanquito's withdrawal does not change things very much at all...it just means we have three less wines (22 rather than 25) - unless anybody wants to bring some more - and one less flight (seven rather than eight). Some may actually prefer it that way. This is what I would suggest for the line up:

Intro

Laurent Perrier Grand Siecle X2

Flight one

La Lagune, Cos D’Estournel, Montrose

Flight two

La Conseillante, L'Evangile, Tetre-Roteboeuf

Flight three

Lafite, Mouton, Palmer

Flight four

Ausone, Cheval Blanc, Angelus

Flight five - BLIND...

Haut-Brion, La Mission Haut Brion, Lynch Bages

Flight six

Pichon Baron, Pichon Lalande, Leoville Lascases

Flight seven

Climens, Riesling TBA

Thanks Ian, Jill will be happy to join us.

Jacques, Lucie and I are very happy that Jill will come.

I like it that the BD will be inebriated by the time Lynch gets floored with a right cross from H-B and a left hook from LMHB.

stefan

Excellent, I lost Patrick in my secret recruitment for Lynch Bages votes but I know Jill will be an outstanding replacement.

JIm,

If you think you can buy votes with your long-term ties to the Kennedy family, just remember who's digging deepest making campaign contributions...

Tom

I wouldn't worry too much about election-fixing on Jim's part. He has an established track record for unintentionally recruiting votes for the opposition. If only he'd thrown his support behind Ahmadinejad and Karzai, we'd have new leadership in Iran and Afghanistan.

You're right, David. The '89 Lynch was so great in DC-- so much better than the '82 Lalande and the others-- that I couldn't believe it was so good. It is one of the reasons why I fear for the '89 Haut Brion and La Mission. I almost feel sorry for them, and the hits they are about to take on their overblown reputations.

Whew! This is sounding better than "Rock Um Sock Um Robots" ! Perhaps the Contestants should be decanted into plastic bottles, could be dangerous at ringside with glass flying about.

I for one am bringing goggles. :>)

We are off to Noo Yawk today. Packed in the center of our WineKaddy are bottles of 89 Ausone, Cos, and La Lagune. I hope that Continental can manage not to lose them.

stefan & Lucie

wish I could have made this dinner. Enjoy everyone!

Bill,

You and Jan are arriving a week early, or has the date been changed?

Perplexed Pappa

The date is still October 17

Presumably stefan is in NY for over a week?

I will speak to Fabios today on logistics, esp re stems and revert

Ian

I came a week early to work at NYU. It will be nice to get familiar with the village--usually we stay in Midtown, but this time I accepted an offer for an NYU apartment. Not sure that was a good choice, though, as it is so filthy that Lucie will spend the better part of today improving it to being only dirty.

stefan

I just spoke to Tiziano at the restaurant to confirm everything.

The restaurant has glasses, which are of good quality, but he agrees that it is a good idea that those who can should bring their own.

They also have three decanters we can use. Given that we need at least three decanters for the blind flight if anyone can bring one along it would be appreciated

I will be bringing at least three glasses, possibly up to six, plus a decanter

As I mentioned they are expecting us at 5.45pm, for a 6pm start

I am planning to get there slightly earlier.

Tom & Gail and Jim: if you could get there slightly earlier (say 5.35) too that would be good so we can sort out the blind flight.

Tom: would you like to chose the order of the blind flight? That would mean that among the tasters, you and only you will be privy to which wine is which in flight five (as you were last year). For obvious reasons I am not asking Jim to choose!

Otherwise Tom if you want to taste them blind I can do it.

stefan...I trust your wines arrived in NYC safely in tact?

Looking forward to it

Eight days to go and counting...

Ian, I was worried, because one of the TSA guys at our airport is a wine nut. But I guess he decided that it was too risky to grab one of my bottles as all arrived intact.

Tonight we'll give Mas a try. $35 corkage, but I guess that is better than ordering off the list.

stefan

Dang, I was in NYC last night, we shouldve uncorked some bottles.

We'll be going to a matinee in the afternoon; we'll get there as close to 5:45 as we can. We'll have a half-dozen glasses and three carafes.

I'm not worried about the order as long as Jimbo isn't in charge (he'd open three bottles of Lynch Bages just to make sure that one of them won!) I'd be up for a random order. We often "over-label" the wines (one person decants and labels the wines, covering the labels with a blank that is then numbered/lettered by another person.)

See y'all on Saturday!

Is there any menu selected?

Not yet Tom. I am going to speak to them tomorrow. Last year we chose off the menu, plus the chef had some specials. I think it worked OK. But I will speak to them about getting a menu out earlier so we can look at it on line.

Any special preferences?

Tom if you will be struggling to make it at 5.45pm then we can push the kick off time back a bit.

Ordering off the menu sounds fine to us. (Gail just doesn't want to be restricted to a lamb dish!) I thought last year's veal chop was awesome -- I think I may have had that both nights(?) -- but I'm flexible (and I love lamb, but never get to eat it at home...)

We should be able to arrive by 5:45, just probably not any earlier...

The l'Evangile and the Red Baron are now standing at attention waiting to be called into battle

Have a great time and tasting. And please, make that blind tasting round as serious as it can be. no cheating, only honest wine lover and may the 1989 Haut... I mean may the best wine win...

Nic

I think we can order when we get there...you can look at the menu here:

http://www.fabiopiccolofiore.com/dinner_menu.html

And Fabio will have some specials on the day

My three conquistadors have been vertical since Saturday. I must say they are looking rather fetching and are really up for it. They are quietly confident, especially the two Rothschilds which have already been written off for a place on the podium and are reveling in their (unusual) underdog status. I took a photo but could not upload it

According to the pre-event hype the Haut-Brion is the hot favorite at 5/4, with La Mission at 3/1, Lynch at 5/1 and the Baron and Montrose on 8/1

NEW YORK TIMES
TEMPERS FLARE AS FIGHT NIGHT APPROACHES

New York, New York (AP)-- Pre-fight preparations for Saturday night's highly anticipated 1989 Bordeaux faceoff took a nasty turn this afternoon as handlers for Team Lynch Bages and Team Haut Brion had to be separated after a brief scuffle outside of Madison Square Garden.

The altercation arose shortly after the latest betting line results released by Comte "The Greek" Flaneur revealed comfortable pre-fight margins for stablemates Haut Brion and La Mission Haut Brion over beloved underdog and crowd favorite, Lynch "The Poor Man's Mouton" Bages.

Several members of the New York City Police Department dispersed the midday crowd quickly without injuries or further incident.

"We've been here before," said an obviously agitated Lynch promoter Jimmy L. B. How as he was led away from the scuffle with Haut Brion handlers to his waiting limousine at the corner of 7th Avenue and 32nd Street. "We were the underdog against the Purple Baron in Chicago as well." The renowned Maine lawyer and philanthropist was referring to two epic victories of the 1989 Lynch Bages over the favored 1989 Pichon Baron in Chicago in 2001, and in a rematch in the Windy City in 2004.

"I'm sure the Haut Brion fighters hold up well at the typical summer barbecue," said How, mockingly omitting the silent "H" and "T" in the famed Pessac wines. "There will be nowhere to hide come Saturday night. No bogus oddsmakers gonna help them come Flight Five."

"It'll take two of them to give us a fight anyway," continued How. "Judging from the latest Parker scores, maybe they should bring along their friends Pape Clement and Smitty Lafitte, sounds like they'd give us a better run for our quality/price ratio!"

The Haut Brion team drove away quickly as an angry New York crowd taunted them with a hearty Bronx cheer chant of "Over-rated! Over-rated!"

Several other lighterweight matches have been scheduled on the undercard.

Put me in, coach!

Foul! I say foul! While nearly all of the world's supply of '89 Lynch Bages is stashed at evil How Mansion, we're gonna be side-swiped with a bottle that Jim is picking up via a drive by? Is he setting up a great excuse for why his fighter goes down hard, once again???

If you'd like, I'll strap my bottle of 'O Brion to the hood of our car for the drive up. That might give your LB a chance, since it might be comparable to 20 years of rattling around in the retail system versus two decades of peaceful rest in a cellar...

If you're not going to submit a well-stored bottle, I think we'll just stay home. Who cares what wine can best such a abused child of the streets????

My cellar has been emptied of all '89 Lynch except for my 3L, which I would be happy to bring but might be hard to hide its identity.
No amount of last minute controversy is gonna save your Haut Brion, Tommy The Hit Man. There will be no Lou-Albano-like ring-side deception this time.
This time it is going to be just you and me. Flight Fight. Winner takes all.
Bring your wine. Bring it on for its punishment, like a man.

Tom,

The Veal Chop was the best I ever had. I'm having the same meal I had last year. 1/2 order of "Pappa" Dell with fresh Porcini Mushrooms and the Veal Chop.

Ramon,

Thanks for posting the menu, you've got me drooling over the Veal Chop photo while I'm eating Rice Chex and a sliced Banana at 6:30 AM.

To those at Ringside

The 89 Lalande is doing some Ti Chi while preparing for the "Undercard" Bouts. I expect a quick take down and dispatch in our bout.

Roadwork in Tibet has our fighter in top mental and physical condition. We left prayer flags for the soon to be vanquished

"And remember, the first rule of Fight Club is we don't talk about Fight Club!"

ARE YOU READY TO RUMBLE?

I predict an easy win for La La in the first bout, but my fighter in the fourth is up against an angel riding a white horse...

stefan