Bordeaux Wine Enthusiasts

We have just left Chateau Pichon Baron, the 22nd of 22 scheduled chateau visits this week.
The extent of the epic ness of this trip I suspect will come out in dribbles in the days and weeks ahead.
It was a life-altering week.
I will extend more detailed gratitude in the days ahead, but I wanted to just take a minute to thank Alex for the immense amount of work he put into this historic effort.
It was amazing, and we are forever in his debt.
Much gratitude also goes out to the co-organizers, Timmy, Ian, and Bill.
So much to talk about but suffice to say right now that it was amazing!!!!

Yes, spectacular, amazing, once in a lifetime experiences. Fantastic people in BWE, and especially the organizers as they did so much work to call their connections and make the magic happen this week. Thanks again!

Michael-P

For sure, an astonishing week, and for that, i'm thankfull to the organizers.

Merci Alex, Tim, Ian and Bill.

Your devotion is incredible.

Nic

All I can say is "Wow". This was an amazing week. I don't even know how to describe our last day, it was so incredible...

A special thanks to Alex who really came through organizing the vast majority of the visits to the Chateaux.

Thanks to Alfred Tesseron who was an incredibly generous host to his Chateau.

And thanks to everyone that gave up their stateside Convention this year to come to France. I know it was a controversial decision to do this, and I appreciate the time and expense that everyone gave to get together with a bunch of wine geeks from the Internet over the course of a week.

Time to get ready for next year's convention!

Tim

It was a GREAT week. Tim & Alex did a fantastic job of organizing the tour. Thanks, guys, for all the work you put into making this venture a rousing success.

The lunch at Pontet Canet rivaled the dinner we had at Chateau Margaux ten years ago. Despite being in pain from dental surgery earlier in the day, Alfred Tesseron was a marvelous and attentive host.

Yes a huge thank you to Alex and Tim for making this happen and organising everything so well. It was an immense triumph and an unforgettable week. While everyone else was enjoying themselves they were always thinking ahead to the next couple of venues to keep to the schedule, and herding cats accordingly. Stalwarts and salt of the earth both of them. 

It was also such a fun group. We were always laughing, especially when Alex got the giggles. We will never forget Danny's antics at La Conseillante where he posed for Larry reclining like a Roman Senator on the hallowed floor, and the wry grin on Jean-Michel's face when he looked over his shoulder to see what was going on. 

Also Alex's reaction when we saw Danny shuffling crab-like through the caves below Ch. Canon to get a close up of the stalactites. As well as being a lot of fun, it was also an educational experience. I felt I learned a lot.

We just arrived in Chinon, a three hour drive up the A10 and we counted 101 wines we tasted or consumed this last week, and over 30 yesterday alone. Over the course of the last two weeks we tasted nearly 200.

The highlight was undoubtedly lunch with Alfred Tesseron yesterday. His generosity was extraordinary. The dinner last night at Pichon Baron was a sensational way to round off proceedings. The number of times I have driven (or ridden) past there dreaming of dining in that majestic chateau...

Wine of the tour? Now that is a really tough one. My short list would include D'Yquem 1998, Cheval Blanc 1975, Latour 1988, Palmer 2006, Leoville Lascases 2012, Chateau Margaux 2004, Smith Haut Lafitte 2009, Pontet Canet 2005 and Pichon Baron 2010.

Of the less hallowed wines I really liked Du Tertre 2012 (and 2009), La Lagune 2012 and 1981, Pavillon Rouge 2004, Pontet Canet 2011 and 1962... 

More observations and notes will follow...

For those who went on this trip and also the one in 2005, I'd be curious how you compare them. Both were obviously great experiences. But from what I can tell the 2015 bus seems like a definite upgrade from 10 years ago . . .

Stuart

Well, Stuart, the weather was less hot, so AC on the bus was less often needed. Some Chateaux treated us like any other tour. Some appreciated us and opened more than the standard. Some rolled out the red carpet. Hard to compare 05 and 15 but both had wonderful moments. I believed I thanked all the organizers in person, but thanks so much again!

Stuart, a few observations. First, we definitely improved on logistics this time around, learning from the last time. We had an upgraded bus, refreshments available, and we put in place a mid-week break so that people could recharge their batteries as needed. So from that perspective, 2015 was an improvement.

In terms of Chateaux visits, I would say that some things gave 2005 an advantage, some things 2015. For example:

Advantage 2005: We will likely never top the Chateau Margaux experience, even though Pontet Canet came close. In addition, I think we were generally met by more winemakers in 2005. Over the last ten years, a lot of properties have hired young people to be hospitality guides, and they tend to be less knowledgeable. These guides take around both professionals and amateurs, so they do have a solid background in wine. But it is more difficult to dig into the philosophy of the winemaker when led by a guide.

Advantage 2015: We really focused on going to "BWE" properties, so I felt it had a greater connection to the past 15 years of BWE. The welcomes that we received at Pontet Canet, Pichon Baron and Smith Haut Lafitte were absolutely incredible. In fact I'd say the majority of the places we visited were extremely welcoming (similar to 2005). One nice part about 2015 is that we ended with the two best visits on the last day: Pontet Canet and Pichon Baron.

Thus, I would agree with Harry that it was pretty even between the two. They were different experiences, but both trips were amazing.

Both 2005 and 2015 were fantastic, as others have already mentioned. The upgraded bus and cool weather meant that there were no negatives for the 2015 trip other than the short boring video we were forced to watch at Latour. Even the visits where we received the normal tourist treatment turned out well. A couple of times we had fairly new estate employees as guides whom we tested with questions and got informative answers or, less often, a simple "I do not know".

Lucie & I are already looking forward to BWE Bordeaux 2025.