Bordeaux Wine Enthusiasts

I will bring two bottles of the 89 Baron, I have one in my Sarasota apartment, I will bring it back to NY in March and to DC for the convention.

For the 2000/2002 blind tasting, I can bring If necessary:

2000
Clerc Milon
Léoville Poyferré
Pape Clément
Branaire
Gruaud Larose
Calon Ségur


2002
Clerc Milon
Mission Haut-Brion

Let me know.

Nic

Wow, that is incredibly generous Jacques, hopefully we can do a blind tasting with the two 89 Barons and the two other '89 Lynches that are being brought by Winona and the other person, I can't remember, is it Rob? We can open your Lynch if one of theirs is corked.

What do you think, David, 2000 vs. 2002 blind tasting before dinner, and 89 Lynch vs. '89 Purple Baron IV after dinner?

Where's Jimmy L.B. How?

Those are great offers Nic, does anyone have 2002 Leoville Poyferre?

I think we have 2000 and 2002 Pichon Baron all set.

It looks like other possibilities might be:

2000 Leoville Poyferre vs. 2002 Leoville Poyferre
2000 Branaire vs. 2002 Branaire
2000 SHL vs. 2002 SHL.

And other possibilities....

I have 2002 Leoville Poyferre.

We have 2002 Branaire.

Branaire is a beauty in both 2000 and 2002.

Just got a check for Nic's friend Jean-Frédéric.

I'll put together a spreadsheet of available 2002 and 2000 bottles sometime this weekend and we can come up with a final selection.

I like the idea of '89 Lynch vs Baron at the end, but it may be difficult to re-organize the troops at the end of the dinner.

If I can swing the logistics to fit 8 glasses per person on the table, I'll suggest we pour all of them before dinner is served, do the voting on the 2002 vs 2000 before dinner, and vote on the two veterans between the main course and dessert.

That sounds like a good plan.

I found a couple 2002 Lascombes

I'm bailing on the 2002 Branaire, sorry but I must have drank it and I can't find it anywhere to buy. Hopefully, we have enough without my bottle.

We'll bring a couple, jal.

I just have to excavate the bottle from Mount Vin (the big pile o'wine in the cellar.)

Thanks Tom, for some reason, wine searcher pro has almost every vintage available in the US except the 2002.

ANOTHER blizzard up here! I can't wait for the convention!!!!

Only an inch here last night, and temps into the 50s today have melted about half of the snow on the ground. Tomorrow should be similarly warm, but I'm not sure that winter is done with us yet.

Here the weather is fine for golf, but I have no time to play...

Another 8 inches in my Chicago neighborhood yesterday (though I suspect that pales in comparison to Maine). I am literally running out of places to put it. Today it hit low 40s so some melted. But we need about two more solid weeks of that to melt the accumulation away!

I've been AWOL from BWE for over a year, mostly due to family illnesses and deaths.

I'll miss this convention, too and it sounds like another great one.

I still drink though, so I sure hope I can get more involved soon.

Have a great time.

Stuart

What 89's are needed?
Thanks................

I think we have 2 bottles each of 89 Lynch and Baron which should be enough for the blind tasting although it would be good to have a backup bottle of each.

I think Jay mentioned he can bring a 1989 Leoville Las Cases. I have one of those at home so maybe I can bring that to the Saturday night dinner.

I would prefer to drink the '89 Lynch and Baron with dinner.

Not much discussion of the "Cordier in the 1980's" theme that was floated earlier. Perhaps "1989 Bordeaux at 25 years" is an alternate theme to consider? I have lots of 1989s.

Chris Bublitz

Chris, I'm all for bringing Cordiers of the '80s or for a 1989 theme. Just didn't look like we could round up enough bottles for a blind tasting. But by all means bring 'em and we'll drink them non-blind with dinner.

I agree about drinking the '89 Lynch and Baron with dinner. I'm thinking we pour them at the start, at the same time as the '00 vs '02 blind wines, so everyone gets a pour before things get, umm, happily disorganized? But keep those two '89s in the glass (blind) for drinking with dinner and vote on them after the main course. What do you think?

I'm working on a list of all the '02s and '00s that have been offered to see if we can get 2-3 bottles of 3 pairs of matched wines for the blind tasting. I may contact some of you who have made multiple offerings to see if you have more than 1 bottle you're willing to bring. Stay tuned. And I've already secured a prize for the one who gets the most wines right: a Wine Check.

I'm with Chris.
I have a good stash of 80 Cordier's I can bring.

I'll bring some additional bottles of 89 PB and Lynch.
I have some 2000's but very few 2002's (maybe 0).

Chris and Rob, are you saying that you would prefer the blind tasting to be Cordier wines of the '80s? If so, we'll need to list the bottles people can bring in order to see if we have enough for everyone to taste. I'm doing a list of posted bottles this weekend so I'll consider everything that's posted by noon Saturday and try to have something up Saturday afternoon. If that wasn't your intention, no problem, I'd still be interested in drinking those wines with dinner.

I was NOT suggesting a blind tasting of 1980s Cordier wines. I am fine with the blind tasting of 2000 and 2002 that is being organized. What I was suggesting was that perhaps 1989 might be an additional theme for wines to drink with dinner given that many of the attendees don't have Cordier wines from the 80s.

Chris Bublitz

Got it Chris, thanks. I thought that was what you meant but wanted to make sure. I'm all for Cordiers from the '80s and/or any good '89s. They are all pretty much in a sweet spot now and should be great for enjoying with the meal. Unfortunately I've drunk all my '80s vintage Cordiers save for a lone bottle of '88 Talbot, which is teed up for BWE '14.

I'm in for three 2002 Pichon Barons DavidG.

DavidG wrote:Got it Chris, thanks. I thought that was what you meant but wanted to make sure. I'm all for Cordiers from the '80s and/or any good '89s. They are all pretty much in a sweet spot now and should be great for enjoying with the meal. Unfortunately I've drunk all my '80s vintage Cordiers save for a lone bottle of '88 Talbot, which is teed up for BWE '14.

My mindset is the same. It was mentioned as a possible theme and I had the goods.
I'm aiding in the 89 LB and 89 PB re-match.
Will bring some Cordiers (LLC/GL/Talbot) and can possibly provide some 2000's if there a gap.

can I add one more for Sat night?

One more person that is...

I'm sure there's room Timmy.
What is the head count for Saturday night David?

There are 25 paid and 3 pending. Plenty of room for another.

Excellent, payment for my second guest is on its way...

Sorry you won't be here, Stuart -- we'll get 'em next year!

So do we need to settle on what we're tasting when?

Yes, Stuart, we'll miss you and Kathy. Hope we will see you at the next one.

Based on what I've seen posted in this thread, this appears to be the most viable lineup for the 2000 vs 2002 tasting. I may not have interpreted everyone's offer correctly, so chime in if I messed up. We need at least 2 bottles of each wine for the blind, preferably 3 in case one is corked.

Calon Segur - St. Estephe
2000 - 3 bottles on offer
SCWine (1)
Stefan (1)
Nic (1)
2002 - 2 bottles on offer
SCWine (1)
Stefan (1)

Leoville Poyferre - St. Julien
2000 - 2 bottles on offer
DavidG (1) + 1 if needed
Nic (1)
2002 - 2 bottles on offer
JAL (1)
Stefan (1)

Pichon Baron - Pauillac
2000 - 2 bottles on offer
DavidG (1) + 1 if needed
HM$ (1)
2002 - 3 bottles on offer
JimHow (3)

For each of the above, we have at least 2 bottles of each wine on offer. Would like to see another bottle of 2002 Calon Segur and 2002 Leoville Poyferre on deck in case of a corked bottle. I can bring a back-up for the 2000 Poyferre and 2000 Baron in case of taint.

Organizing this by contributor, again, let me know if I didn't get your contribution right:

SCWine
2000 Calon Segur (1)
2002 Calon Segur (1)

Stefan and Lucie
2000 Calon Segur (1)
2002 Calon Segur (1)
2002 Leoville Poyferre (1)

Nic
2000 Calon Segur (1)
2000 Leoville Poyferre (1)

DavidG
2000 Leoville Poyferre (1) (2nd if needed)
2000 Pichon Baron (1) (2nd if needed)

JAL
2002 Leoville Poyferre (1)

HM$
2000 Pichon Baron (1)

JimHow
2002 Pichon Baron (3)

One more bottle of 2002 Calon Segur and 2002 Leoville Poyferre are desired for "insurance" in case of a corked bottle.

As far as logistics are concerned, I have enough glasses so everyone can have 8: 6 for the 2000 vs 2002 blind tasting and 2 for the 1989 Lynch and Baron.

All of the blind wines ('00, '02 and '89) will be poured (hopefully) by the time everyone is seated at the conclusion of the welcome Champagne reception. There will be score sheets for the 2000 vs 2002 tasting and everyone will be asked to rank the wines from best (1) to worst (6) and to make their best educated guess as to what the wines are. We'll have about 45 minutes to vote and try to identify the 2000 and 2002 wines before the score sheets are collected. I'm hoping HM$ will volunteer to assist with the scoring. Results of the voting and best blind taster/guesser (up to 3 points for each wine: year, wine, and both correct) will be announced sometime after the main course is served. After announcing the results of the 2000 vs. 2002 tasting, I'll ask for a show of hands to vote for the 1989s prior to revealing their identities. I'll also need a volunteer to keep an eye on Jim and his walking around money during this vote. I will abstain from voting since I will know which wines are which.

These are the people who said they could bring 1989 Lynch and Baron. Correct me if I am wrong. Thanks to their incredible generosity, it looks like we have 3 bottles of each wine. If none are corked, that means slightly larger pours to enjoy with the meal.

Jacques
1989 Lynch Bages (1)
1989 Pichon Baron (2)

Rob
1989 Lynch Bages (1)
1989 Pichon Baron (1)

Chris
1989 Lynch Bages (1)

Of course, all other Bordeaux are welcome, particularly other 1989s or Cordier wines of the '80s. These will be opened and poured non-blind during dinner as part of the free-for-all component of the evening.

One more logistical item: all of the blind wines need to be delivered to my hotel room by 10 AM Saturday morning. I will open them, let them slow-ox a couple of hours, then double decant them to remove them from their sediment a couple of hours before the dinner. That way they will all be treated the same and we will be able to use the pour control gadgets without running into sediment.

Wow! Wow! Wow!
BD is pleased!
Well done DavidG, very well done indeed!
I will be happy to discuss your votes with each of you beforehand....

Another freaking 8-12" of snow coming, and the weather guy says "RIDICULOUSLY" cold weather to accompany it. Is that a new meteorologic term? "Ridiculously Cold." I'm sure it doesn't hold a candle to Maine, but crap I am getting tired of this.