A rendezvous in Fort Lauderdale....

[JimHow]

So....

A group of us are in Fort Lauderdale visiting Stuart and Kathy.

Myself, Jacques, Jill, Danny, Danielle, Larry, Stefan, Lucie, Les, and Les's wife (I'm sorry I don't recall her name, I'm going deaf).

I'm having breakfast and answering a bunch of emails and texts, a quick summary right now, and I'll return for more detailed notes.

Let me see how much I can remember:

Before the dinner we had a little BD champagne reception in my room, we had:

2008 Cristal
2008 Dom Perignon

(I'll come back to that Cristal)

At the Stuart dinner we drank:

1996 Krug en magnum

1982 Latour
1982 Lafite
1982 Mouton
1982 Haut Brion
1982 Margaux

1999 Lafite
1996 Lafite
1994 Lafite
1998 Haut Brion
2000 Haut Brion
2000 La Mission Haut Brion
2000 du Tertre
1988 Riuessec
1945 Port
1951 Kopke

I gotta rush off, I'm sure I'm missing some will be back....

[robertgoulet]

Jim...the line up here in Orlando look a tad different....WOW

[DavidG]

Oops, didn't see you started this when I posted.

I think the only one you missed was the 1982 La Lagune. An excellent bottle.

What a great time catching up with everyone.

[JimHow]

Yes and it was 2004 Lafite, not 1994.
That '04 was a Jim How kind of wine!

[AKR]

Heavy duty hitters!

[dstgolf]

What a great late afternoon rendezvous chez How suite arriving a little late after getting bogged down in South Florida traffic. Wonderful to see many old friendly faces overlooking the beach from the 23rd floor with a great view. Nice to catch up with David G, Jim, Jacques & Jill along with Bill & Jan over some fabulous 2008 Cristal and Dom that David pretty much hit bang on. Cristal crisp, fresh and zesty while Dom a little reserved but delicious . Time flew by and we crammed into a couple of UBERs and shuttled off to the beach front restaurant Dune in their private venue. Stu always has a knack of knowing the best spots and this didn't disappoint. Beautiful room, great service and food shared with a wonderful group.

1996 Krug en magnum waiting on ice poured as we arrived. A third great champagne to start the festivities. Met Les and Laurie who live in the condo's associated with Dune and enjoyed their company and conversation.

Following Krug a mystery wine served blind wrapped in foil served a little too warm but its nose was superb and showed many of the classic notes blending richness of meursault and flintiness of chablis. Not all good wines need to come from France and be expensive with this 2017 Norman Hardie Chardonnay from Prince Edward County about 2hrs from our home in Ottawa are producing some pretty respectable wines in Canada. https://www.normanhardie.com

Menu was fabulous and wines were popped and poured in a furious fashion...maybe a little too fast paced for most with so many incredible wines and so little time. A shame with three glasses having to decide which to dump to make room for the next. There came a point where I had a log jam in front of me because I didn't want to waste and wanted to slow things down. What an incredible line up and we went from fabulous to incredible with Stu sprinkling in hidden gems pulling from his bag of tricks under the table. First round of pours came 2000 La Mission, 2000 HB, and 98 HB. Just started to savour then out pops the 82 HB!! What the hell do I do now with 3 beauties in the glasses before and have to sacrifice one to make room for the next and a couple of sips then out goes the 98 the weak one of the trio. Wow the 82 showed layers of tobacco, leather and still background cassis with soft resolved tannins. Superb.

The Lafite's started to round the table and no room in the glasses...shit now what!! 2000 La Miss replaced with 99 Lafite. 2000 HB changed for 96 Lafite and now the first holding pattern. How can I justify sacrificing one for the 04 Lafite. Out goes the 99 Lafite the weakest of the three in my glasses. 96 Lafite was stellar and just continued to improve. 04 was a surprise drinking so well at the moment then out of Stu's bag of tricks came the 82 Lafite. Christ now where do I put it!! Out I run to the bar and grab a 4th glass. N way am I pouring anything else!! But around comes the 82 Mouton .....crickey now what. Log jam again and Mouton gets passed by with 2000 du Tertre showing up replacing the 04 Lafite then the 82 Margaux. Now this is a wine lovers nightmare that most will never experience. We were now doubling up glasses between Danielle and myself sharing 7 glasses and sipping back and forth rather than worrying about wasting any more of these precious beauties. The du 2000 Tertre held its own at the table of superstars and was perfectly balanced with lovely Margaux nose and soft sexy feminine palate. The 82 Margaux was the lesser of the the 5 first growth partners for me and a little disappointing by comparison. The show stopper was the 82 Latour....one word ....incredible. Blew everything else away again. 5th time I've had this and third up against the Mouton and hands down it knocked it out of the park.

88 Riuessac was a treat to finish up with desert. I'm not a fan of fortified wines other than for cooking and enjoyed the ports but didn't leave me wowed. Both good and a treat to enjoy a WWII year bottle that was still very good but wasted on my palate especially after being treated to so many incredible stellar Bordeaux Allstars leading up to these.

What a magical night once again hosted by Stu and Kathy who's generosity is unparalleled and attention to detail second to none. A treat we'll all never forget and I look forward to hearing about day 2 dinner which we will unfortunately miss with our friends in Pompano calling us this am insisting that we visit today even with them not feeling well. Look forward to the next gathering in Bordeaux for us. Until next time...adieu!

[JimHow]

...

[JimHow]

Immense gtatitude to Stuart as always, the generosity never ceases to awe me.
What great friendships over the past 20 years.

[DavidG]

Seconding the thanks to Stu for his incredible generosity. What a great way to kick of BWE's 20th anniversary.

The 1982 Latour was my WOTN, by an easy margin, but it was so incredible that my other favorites were all still outstanding. Any of these would be a wine to make an evening, a week, or a month:
1982 Lafite
1996 Lafite
1982 Haut Brion
2000 Haut Brion
1982 La Lagune
1982 Mouton
2000 La Mission Haut Brion

The 2000s, particularly the La Mission, showed significant improvement after 4 hours. All of the bottles Stu brought were good from the get-go, a testament to the ability to open and decant ahead of time.

[Comte Flaneur]

Stuart’s generosity is legendary and how fitting to have so many of the BWE senior citizens down there for the beginning of the 20th anniversary. If I was there I would be finding whatever receptacle I could to collect up the surplus to requirement weakest links of Margaux 82 and Lafite 99! Lafite doesn’t tend to thrive in speed dating circumstances and tends to gets muscled out by the likes of La Mission and Latour.

[Blanquito]

Incredible, as always. I often find myself lingering on cheap plane tickets to Ft Lauderdale.

All I can say is if the 82 Margaux was lackluster, that is one heck of a lineup!

[Nicklasss]

What a night. Days are boring compare to night.

Looking forward to see most of you in the US Capital city soon enough.

Nic

[JCNorthway]

Danny, I feel for you. I would have had the same struggle myself. It's so hard for me to "sacrifice" any wine of this quality, since it's unlikely I would have another chance with most of them! Glad everyone was able to take advantage of the opportunity.

[brodway]

Stu is the man.....pulling rabbits out of a hat....wow phenomenal lineup....

Stu has been reporting on some really impressive wine and food tastings lately....way to enjoy wine and friends

[sdr]

Always a fun time to have a few BWEers over to have a nice dinner and open a few bottles. We had exceeded the standard max cap for the private room but it was still commodious although pretty noisy - but that’s probably true no matter where BWE assembles. I had requested my favorite server Michael, who did an excellent job keeping things moving along as well as re-polishing the stemware before everyone arrived.

Sorry Danny felt the need to dump some of the wines prematurely. The idea was to serve them in logical groups at a moderate pace but not to empty the bottle on the first circuit of the room. I can see why that might not be a guarantee it would happen though and most of them were things you didn’t want to miss. I hope everyone got a second pour of anything they desired.

As far as the ‘82 FGs, based on prior experience, I thought the Latour was at its best (after I dumped a prior flawed bottle), Mouton near the top, Lafite typical, Haut-Brion somewhat below par (lacked energy) and Margaux not a good example (too rustic) but not flawed. I was amazed how interesting and lively the La Lagune was, I always underestimate LL.

Thanks for all the comments and compliments.

Stu