Bordeaux Wine Enthusiasts

For those of you that will be arriving in DC on Thursday (or earlier), plans are underway for a BWE Dinner on Thursday, March 31. The dinner will be at Ripple in the Cleveland Park neighborhood of DC. It's conveniently located less than a block from the Cleveland Park subway station - and it's only two stops from the Dupont Circle station on the Red line. There is room for 14-16 participants. Add your name to the list if you would like to join in. So far, we have:

Jim H.
Tom W.
Rob & Sue
Patrick + Brother
Stefan & Lucie
Chris & Marjorie

Chris Bublitz

Thanks for organizing, Chris. Did we settle on a wine theme or themes?

I would like to include several themes:

Champagne
German Riesling
red Bordeaux
Northern Rhone
Dessert wines

Subject to adjustment based on the wishes of the participants,
Best to have at least two or three wines in each flight.

Chris Bublitz

Sounds good to me!

That's my kinda event!

I'll bring two German Rieslings, some red Bordeaux and a dessert wine to cover me and my brother.

I'll bring some German and old school Northern Rhone.

Is there a total charge or are we just ordering off the menu?

I would like to come, I can bring either of the reds (cote-rotie or Bordeaux) or a dessert wine, just let me know, thanks!

I think we just ordered off the menu last time if I recall.
I remember it as a fun venue.

I think I'll bring some red Bordeaux, plus perhaps some Champagne and/or 2001 Germans?

Paula and I will miss this evening; we already have other plans for Thursday. But we will catch up with the gang on Friday.

I haven't made final arrangements so speaking from past experience (I go to ten to fifteen wine dinners a year at Ripple), we get two or three choices for each course. Thinking about four course dinner with:

Soup or Salad
Appetizer
Main Course
Dessert or Cheese

Depending on what we do, all in price $80 to $100.

Chris Bublitz

Ok folks, this is just a couple weeks away and I would like to get a final count in to the restaurant.

Marcs, glad you can make it. Jon and Paula, you will be missed.

Any others? How about Michael P?, SF Ed?, Mr. Vino?

Chris Bublitz

Chris, I'm planning on bringing a couple bottles of Champagne, a 2001 Donnhoff and a 2001 Prum, and another beauty for after dinner if our guests are up for it. Do you think two bottles of Champagne will suffice?

We'll bring a couple of Hermitage and maybe something else, but it sounds like we have too many bottles for even a BWE dinner.

I can add a 1995 Beaucastel or a 2001 Vieux Donjon if that's of interest Hey, whatever we don't open Thursday, we can open Friday (or Saturday if it's Bordeaux).

What time is the dinner, Chris?

I'll have a (hopefully) mature Northern Rhone.

Sorry to disappear from this thread. We will be starting at 6:30 at Ripple.
Address: 3417 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington, DC 20008
Phone: (202) 244-7995

So far we have:

Jim H.
Tom W.
Rob & Sue
Patrick + Brother
Stefan & Lucie
Chris & Marjorie
marcs
Jay W

Any one else?

Chris Bublitz

This is coming up tomorrow night at 6:30 p.m. Hope everyone is psyched up and ready to go. For those of you waiting for me to organize the flights of wine - good luck with that. Organizing myself to take a shower is about the limit of my skills.

General themes are:

Champagne
German Riesling
red Bordeaux
Northern Rhone
Dessert wines

We can figure out how we do the flights at the restaurant. Remember, please plan to arrive at 6:30 p.m.

Chris Bublitz

Need to bring stems?

Think I will save the CNDP and bring a Bordeaux.

No need to bring stems. Ripple has good stems and will provide what we need.

Chris Bublitz

I'm bringing two bottles of Champagne to start us off.

I am bringing an old school Cote Rotie and a Hermitage.

I will be bringing 1997 Hermitage La Chapelle and some red Bordeaux.

Chris Bublitz

Good, Chris. One of the Hermitage we are bringing is the La Chappelle 2006.

I have another La Chapelle, or an Henri Sorrell if the Jaboulet is shot.

A La Chapelle mini-vertical sounds good to me.

A great start to our convention. Thanks Chris.for organizing. 82 Montrose, 90 leoville poyferre, 78 la lagune, 85 Canon and others all good. Onto the weekend!

A great start to our convention. Thanks Chris.for organizing. 82 Montrose, 90 leoville poyferre, 78 la lagune, 85 Canon and others all good. Onto the weekend!

Wow, fantastic night.

Some many incredible wines but the red wine in the night for me by a hair was the 1990 Leoville Poyferre.

An amazing start to the weekend! More reports to come.

What a blast! We had a great dinner at a ridiculously low price.
Thank you Chris Winona Chief for organizing!
The back room setting was splendid.
And what great spirit in the group.
We came back to my room afterwards.
Let me put it this way:
There are only 3 whoopie pies left and the ancient bottle of Lot 56 Perfection Tesseron Cognac given to me personally by Alfred 9 years ago is half gone.
We had some great wines, I think I would agree that the 90 Poyferre may have been tops, but of course it really is not totally fair to rank these wines, they are all so unique and outstanding.
I must say the 2010 Cantemerle was gone almost immediately, quickly gulped down during the whoopie pie hazing.
Breakfast is here, will report more soon.

A great introduction to the BWE community. I ate not one but two whoopie pies, and as many of you know Jim gets very large, high-quality whoopie pies straight from the source. So that was an achievement!

On the dinner wines, the Bordeauxs were better than the Northern Rhones. The '90 Poyferre was the pretty clear WOTN for me, but the 89-90 Poyferre matching was very good. The vintage characteristics showed clearly with the 89 being good but more tannic, less giving and complex, and perhaps needing more time.

There were some excellent Rieslings going around as well. Jim brought a terrific 2001 German riesling that had these beautifully delicate petrol overtones, forgot what it was exactly but a famous name -- Prum? Auslese or Spatlese?

As the person with the youngest cellar on this board I brought the 09-10 Grand Puy Lacoste; the 09 GPL was clearly better on the night, although rather California-esque. The 2010 GPL was shut down hard and difficult to judge.

Everyone also liked the '05 Dom Perignons Jim brought to start us off. The Bordeaux definitely outshone the northern Rhones, but that often happens when you mix these appellations at the same meal. My favorite was the 82 Montrose with the 90 Poyferre a close second.

Looks like Lucie's hidden behind a sea of old men in that picture. Sounds like a great start.