Bordeaux Wine Enthusiasts

By order of the BD, I have reserved the Alcove Room at Charlie Palmer Steak for our Saturday main event dinner on April 2. The deposit is going in tomorrow AM.

The plan:
6:00 - 7:00 PM: Welcome reception with butlered hors d'oeuvres and Champagne.
7:00 - ???? PM: Seated dinner.

Cost
Will depend on some of the choices below. Champagne? More rental glasses if we do a blind tasting? In 2014 when we did this all-in for the Saturday dinner at Charlie Palmer was $200/person (including tax, tip, corkage, rental glassware).

Champagne for the welcome reception
We've done this as a free-for-all bring 'em if ya got 'em and we've done it with relatively inexpensive (and unexciting but real) Champagne purchased locally with your event dollars. We can mix/match with some good stuff brought in by BWEs and some purchased locally to insure there's enough and it's there and chilled on time. I'm open to suggestions.

Dinner Menu
Appetizer of baby spinach salad with egg, portobello and smoked bacon vinaigrette
Choice of entree. I'm negotiating number of entree choices, 2 vs 3. One will be filet mignon, the second (and third if possible) will be salmon and pasta.
Hazelnut pyramid dessert.

Tasting?
If someone wants to organize a blind or unblind tasting this year, we can do it at 7:00 and delay the dinner service until 7:30. We can arrange for decent stemware rental. The logistics involved:
Choose the wines in collaboration with BWE contributors
Insure there were 2 bottles (for 1.5 oz pours) of each wine, or 3 bottles (for 2 oz pours and/or a backup in case of TCA)
Consider whether you trust the pourers or if you want to use pour restrictors.
Put together voting sheets if you want to vote for best wines and/or best taster/guesser
Get the wines from people ahead of time
Open the bottles and double decant to remove sediment Saturday afternoon
If blind: Mask and mark the bottles. Have someone help you if you want to remain blinded as well.
Deliver the bottles to Charlie Palmer
Direct and assist the staff in pouring the wines during the 6-7 PM welcome hour to insure no mix-ups.
Bring a bunch of pens - no one remembers and distribute them along with the voting sheets.
Someone will need to collate the results if there is voting.

Sounds good, DavidG. We don't have to do a blind tasting. I would just say the Saturday night theme is: Bordeaux, Bordeaux, Bordeaux!

How about doing a themed unblind tasting before dinner with the tasted wines rated? This would give our BD the maximum opportunity to exercise his political skills.

Fine with me Stefan if you want to organize.

Tom in DC has generously offered to take over planning duties for the Saturday dinner since I wont be able to attend. I'm sure things will go off without a hitch. We've got the room reserved and the menu set. I got them to agree to $10/person corkage. We'll be able to arrange to rent wine glasses of decent size and shape so everyone has plenty. Details about Champagne for the welcome hour and a possible blind/unblind tasting TBD.

I am in favor of an unblind tasting (with a limited number of wines) before the dinner. Need to think about a theme - 1996? 1986? Something else?

Chris Bublitz

Agree with Chris on having a theme, I like the learning we get from it, especially ones like the Haut Brion theme in Dallas a few years ago.

How about 1996 and 1986? Not too hard/restrictive, and kind of implies left bank since those were both great left mediocre right vintages.

SF Ed

86/96 sounds good to me!

86/96 is great. Declare wines to get some coverage? I've got an 86 Rausan Segla calling my name.

I can provide two bottles each of 1996 Pontet Canet and 1996 Lynch Bages. I can also bring a couple bottles of 2005 Dom Perignon if that is of any interest.

I'm thinking 1986 Gruaud Larose and 1996 Pichon Baron to start.

1996 Champagne is also great...

SF Ed

I am all for a tasting to start (after the champagne reception).
But since Nalan is only in DC that Sat, I can't take time out to help organize a blind tasting since we'll be tourists on Sat (with more BWEers I hope!).

Do we have anyone in the DC area that we can ship wine to in advance?

Michael-P

I started collecting with the 2000 vintage so don't have much from earlier...however I do have some 1996 Sociando Mallet to contribute. (Shame it's not a blind tasting since I suspect S-M always punches way above its weight in blind tastings).

I have a storage facility where people can ship wine in advance, but don't have much space left in it...how many bottles are people talking about?

96 Sociando, the first BWE Wine of the Year... Mmmmmmm.

1996 Sociando Mallet $66 at Flickingers.

NFI

That's a good price, David.

Remember when it was $25? I bought two cases but should have bought 10.

Do we have a cost for Sat yet?
And where to send $$$?
Thanks,
Michael-P

Even though I won't be able to attend, I am arranging to have a couple bottles of Champagne sent to the Convention courtesy of the remaining funds from BWE France 2015. Even though I am sourcing them in the U.S., since I get to choose them, they won't be your typical bottles.

The first eagle has landed, tim - very interesting, indeed. Channeling François?

Wow Tim! That is so nice of you!!!!
Michael P -We should have final cost information about CP dinner very soon- heading to CO later today to visit our kids for a long weekend - should have plenty of time to make calls to finalize details with restaurant/glass rental. This job should be easy as David G did all the up front organizing for the event- thank you David! We'll all miss you and Peg.
Tom and I will post details later this week with cost/collection/etc.

Thank you Gail and Tom for all the heavy lifting you are doing for this and the hotel.

The second (double) eagle has landed as well, tim - well done, well done indeed!

A third and final bottle should be on its way soon.

So should people just bring 86/96 selections, or can we bring more Bordeaux from whatever year we want for the main dinner? I.e. is the evening's wine going to be limited to the 86/96 tasting or will it be flowing freely from all vintages? Never been to one of those shindigs before.

BTW, if anyone wants to check me out before the event, since I've never met anyone around here, tune in to CSPAN at 8:45 AM tomorrow. Yeah, I'm a stereotypical DC person all right.

I'll try to check it out Marc!
Yes, we will definitely be bringing multiple Bordeaux vintages, not just 86/96.

The rule about BWE Conventions: it's OK to break the rules!

I wish I could join you...

We will miss you and Peggy, DavidG!
Tell Peggy we give her our warmest BWE regards.

Any update on cost and where to send payment?

Hi Michael - the information was in another thread:

Saturday, April 2nd Dinner at Charlie Palmer

Post by Tom In DC on Mon Mar 07, 2016 1:01 pm

6-10pm, $150 per person. We're still at the same address, or PM me for info.

I'll post details tonight or tomorrow when I get to a real keyboard.

Thanks,
Tom and Gail

I am going alone (SO will be staying home to babysit), doing check for $150 now...