Bordeaux Wine Enthusiasts

In the taxi on the way to the airport, reflecting on last night’s dinner.
We’ve had some epic events over the past nineteen years, this one may have topped them all.
More reports and pictures to follow.
Immense gratitude to Patrick, Tommy, and the rest of our Denver hosts for an incredible convention.

Safe travels everyone. Wish we could have been there.

Patrick and Tom did a great job of organizing this extravaganza. Thanks, guys!

"And if I say, i really love you, what's your answer be?
BWE is here today
You-ou-ou
Here today"

Nic (credit to Mr McCartney for most of lyrics above)

Still on my cloud, vapors made of 1989 La Mission Haut Brion, 1989 Petrus, 1989 Montrose, 1989 Angelus and... yes... 1989 Lynch Bages.

We missed you, David, but we toasted you, that was incredible of you to send along 1989 Lynch and 1989 Angelus magnums in abstentia.
I don't even know where to begin....

Stuart and Nic.

Bill (William P), with Peter (Cab Fan) and Michael P in the background.

Kathy and Bill (Stefan).

Jan (Lucie) and Lisa.

Gene and Gabor.

Peggy and Linda.

Just got a bunch of pictures from Ed, they're much better than mine, will get them up soon.
Man, everybody looked great, it was so much fun to see all the BWE friends and we really met some new fantastic friends at this convention.

Congrats to everyone and sounds like another fantastic event. Well done and we look forward to the future.

Looks awesome, congrats on a great convention! Wish I could have been there!

I am sitting here at Denver International Airport waiting for my flight back to Blighty.

It was great to see everyone. So many dear friends, some of whom like Jacques and Jill I have not seen for over seven years, and new acquaintances. I am so glad I made it. It was a shame David could not make it - David we missed you and thanks for your generosity in supplying the two mags of very high end wines! Special thanks also to Tom and Patrick for making it all happen and to Patrick for putting me up and putting up with me for four days!

Four sensational wine evenings each one eclipsing the previous one. My impressions of the 1989s last night follows.

It was difficult to take detailed tasting notes because it was an intensely social occasion.

But we got a pretty good idea of how this 1989 vintage is progressing 30 years in.

The occasion confirmed that 1989 is an outstanding vintage with ripeness and power but also balance, raciness and finesse.

While most wines are drinking well the very top wines have not peaked yet.

On last night’s showing 1989 is probably a bit stronger on the left bank than the right bank but the wine of the night was a right banker.

Last night we had one or two flawed wines including unfortunately Haut-Brion, which was ever so slightly corked.

Corked wines

Pichon Lalande - otherwise outstanding
Haut-Brion - otherwise phenomenal

All wines 1989 unless otherwise noted

Wines not tried:

Ausone
Cos D’Estournel
La Lagune
Climens
Guiraud
Rieussec
De Fargues
Figeac 1979
Pichon Baron 1996

Terrible wines:

Yacuchaya 2003 - ringer (Howard put it in for a joke - boy was it terrifyingly awful!)

Good wines:

Haut-Bages Liberal - good but the only wine to show austerity

Very good wines:

Tertre-Roteboeuf - the only wine which was slightly tired.
Lynch-Bages (magnum)
Le Gay
Lafleur De Gay
La Dominique
Grand-Puy Lacoste
Pichon Lalande 1986
Certan De May 1995

Excellent wines:

Talbot
Montrose
Haut-Bailly
Canon
Raymond Lafon 1986

Outstanding wines:

Rauzan-Segla
Gruaud-Larose
Angelus
Vieux Chateau Certan
Lynch-Bages 1996
La Tour Blanche 1988

Exceptional (even better than outstanding) wines:

Lynch-Bages (bottle)
Pichon Baron
Leoville-Lascases
Palmer
Yquem

Phenomenal wines:

La Mission Haut-Brion

Sensational wines:

Petrus - only had a small pour but enough to recognise greatness in a wine which probably will hit its plateau in about ten years - thanks Stuart

I'm really happy you could make it this weekend Ian, it was a blast.
I've received tons of great pictures but I can't seem to reformat them into normal size.

Ed, Julia, and Peter.

Peter and Howard (hm$).

Brendan, Julia, Ian (Comte), Jacques (Jal), and Howard (hm$).

Steve. Patrick is that Stephanie or Candi?

Patrick, aka Blanquito.

Brendan.... Kid brother of Blanquito.

Bill (William P) and Linda.

Bill (Stefan) and Jan (Lucie).

Nic and Jean Frederick.

Michael P and me.

With Nic and Peter.

Tom, Gail, Marjorie, and Chris (Winona Chief).

The 19th convention since we first met in Chicago in 2001. Amazing how time is flying by.

Tom performing important work as Gene and Ted look on.

Comte Flaneur of London.

Gail from behind, Linda, Lisa, Marjorie, and Lisa.

Liz, Rich, Michael, and Nalan. I was at their table, great company.

Hmm, where do we begin?

Ah, yes, with the 1989 Lynch Bages en magnum, of course, donated incredibly by David G, along with a mag of '89 Angelus, even though he could not make it at the last minute. The '89 Lynch was my wine of the night, along with '89 Petrus (a finish that lasted for minutes), '89 La Mission, and 1959 (yes, '59) d'Yquem).

Arv with Candi and Ricky.

The masters at work.

We met some absolutely delightful local Denverites, including Gabor and Krista, at center in this photo.
Krista secured the spectacular Saturday night venue for us.

Stuart and Kathy and some 1989 wine from the right bank I think I've heard about....

From Gail and Tom's Lyft ride.
A lot of late night fun after the dinners each night.

A lot of pictures emailed to me, I'll post more tomorrow.