A Very BWE Night, Largest Gathering Since Covid

[JoelD]

It took a couple months, and a few other smaller tastings to be able to get a full group together but we finally did. With all 10 people in this group vaccinated, we found a perfect time for an end of spring tasting. What better than a Bordeaux(with some age) theme. As well as a few champagnes and Sauternes.

A few BWE'ers mixed in with some of the DC crowd and a few new friends. Great to see Winona Chief and Marjorie in person after many zoom tastings this last year. We (almost) made it to midnight to do a champagne toast for Chris's birthday but alas, we had such a good time early that we didn't quite make it.

Started with 3 champagnes and a white burg.

-NV 2017 dis, Perseval Farge Jean Baptiste-Bit of a hidden gem, great with some air and some nice aged notes. A tad rich at first but precision showed later

-2006 Taittinger Comtes- Started out a bit closed, but opened up for me around 30-60 minutes and gave some real enjoyment. Interesting, greenish color which I noticed on a bottle a few years ago as well.

-2008 Vilmart Grand Cellier d'Or- Definitely my favorite champagne of the night. Had all sorts of interesting notes, with good acidity and great balance. Very glad to try and will seek out.

-2014 Bouchard Meursault Genevrieres- Decent wine, but not my style. Rich and not much precision. Great color, no premox.

-1985 Pichon Lalande- Started out with tons of green pepper and vegetal notes, I didn't have high hopes and ignored for an hour or two. Thankfully Eric and Janet have great palates and it was their favorite, so I tried again and wow. It really balanced, most of those early notes faded and the structure balanced out the wine. A little fruit showed as well. WOTN candidate, top 3 for sure.

-1986 Pichon Lalande- Came out of the gate very nice, with beautiful structure. Very 1986 wine. But much more approachable for me than the 3L that was brought to BWE 2020. However sadly, as the night went on, a small amount of cork taint showed. Not enough to be undrinkable but clear that it was slightly off.

-1989 Pichon Lalande- This also came out of the gate, and was just fantastic. Great structure and balance. Perfectly aged. Probably at peak, maybe coming down from peak. Still a touch of fruit left, but great secondary and tertiary notes. WOTN candidate, top 3 for sure.

-1995 Grand Puy Lacoste- Also came out firing. What a perfect combination of nice spice notes, balanced by some acidity and a little fruit. Also a WOTN candidate, top 5 for sure. Although didn't have Quite the complexity of the 85/89 Pichons

-2000 Calon Segur- Tasty wine, ready to drink but could easily use a few years. I liked this, although some of the other wines outshown it a tad. I found it to be something in between the 95GPL and the 2000 Ducru.

-2000 Ducru- Wow, what structure. If you want serious bordeaux, this is it. Likely still a bit closed, but I think it is almost out of its slumber. This had such beautiful complexity while being completely structured with some acidity. This needs a blanquito or two. But so fun to taste now. WOTN candidate, top 5 for sure.

-2000 Pape Clement- Definitely the most modern styled wine of the night, big, big wine. Needed a decant. But really strutted its stuff after an hour or two of air. A very good balance of modern/classic bordeaux. Reminded me of some Smith Haut Lafite and Leoville Poyferre. Classicists might not like it, and I enjoyed but not as much as some of the others.

-2001 Pichon Lalande- What a sexy wine. Glossy maybe? Definitely more feminine than its 2001 Baron counterpart. Came out firing, probably the best nose of the night on any wine. Ready to go, although could benefit from a few years in the cellar. Very tasty.

-2001 Pichon Baron- This one had clear potential, but a bit too tanic and young. A decant would have probably been good. I tried the last glass that was left of this and the 01 lalande on the second night. And not surprisingly, the baron was better than the lalande on the second day. Although both wines were still better on the first night.

-2008 Ducru- Short decant on this bottle, and it needed it. But wow, what a wine this already is. If you like your wines younger and with a bit more fruit, this is the clear winner over the 2000. I loved it, but if you made me choose, the 2000 is more my style. Both great.

1959 Guiraud- Wow. What a beautiful golden color, looked 20 years old, not 60. I was a tad worried about the fill, but shouldn't have been. It completely lived up and surpassed expectations. Great with the crumble apple pie that Eric brought. Didn't have much as I was still focused on the reds at that point, but so much fun.

1988 La Tour Blanche- Very orange color, although still a good wine. Some don't like these dark sauternes and I tend to be in that group. However this was quite solid. Did not come close to the 59 though.

This was just a fantastic night. Came together perfectly. Thanks to Ben for hosting as his nice courtyard outside. Perfect amount of wines. I believe 16 wines opened for 10 people. Not a single bad wine, other than the slightly corked 86. And most wines were excellent, with a couple outstanding. Great combination of people. Hope to do more like this during the summer. Especially good to get a Bordeaux night in before it starts getting a bit warmer.

If I had to rank the wines, instead of rate with points, this is about how I see it even though I usually prefer to only compare similar wines. So many close calls and awesome wines though.

1. 1985 Pichon Lalande
2. 1989 Pichon Lalande
3. 2008 Vilmart Grand Cellier
4. 2000 Ducru
5. 1995 GPL
6. 2008 Ducru
7. 2001 Pichon Lalande
8. 1959 Guiraud
9. 2006 Taittinger Comtes
10. 2001 Pichon Baron
11. 2000 Pape Clement
12. 2000 Calon Segur
13. Perseval Farge
14. 1986 Pichon Lalande
15. 1988 La Tour Blanche
16. 2014 Bouchard Genevrieres

[Dandersson]

Impressive tasting! Thanks for the very detailed report!

Best, Dan

[JimHow]

Now we talking!
More than 61% of US population vaccinated.
In eight states, including Maine, where the cool people live, we are over 70%.
I think we are cautiously emerging from the dark, what better way to celebrate than with BWEers.
Happy Birthday Winona Chief!

[jckba]

Nice post covid lineup and always interesting to see how they ranked.

[tim]

It's been so long since I've seen a post like this I forgot just how much fun these kinds of events are! Brilliant! Glad to see many of the gang back together again, and with quite a lineup.

[ericindc]

It was a very good night. Thanks Joel for organizing, and Ben for hosting. The weather was perfect and the condo courtyard was fantastic.

I generally agree with the '85 Lalande as my WOTN. with the ''01 Lalande and '95 GPL following up. I was surprised how much I liked the 2008 Ducru. Maybe cause it was lighter. I've generally found Ducru too big for me.

I liked the Taittinger a bit better than the VIlmart which was very shocking to me as I generally like bigger, brasher champagnes. I'm not gonna rank the sauternes as I loved them both for slightly different reasons.

Great night and enjoyed meeting new people and hanging out with friends I haven't seen in a while.

[AKR]

Wow! Great spectrum of wines and nice to see people are getting together again.

[Gerry M.]

What a great lineup and the detailed notes are a bonus! As time goes by I keep coming back to the 89' Pichon Lalande as one of my all-time favorite and most consistent wines. Almost to the point I'd pay whatever the current MV is since I'm down to my last 2 bottles.

[Nicklasss]

Nice report Joel, i'm happy to read that things are going back slowly to normal. I should be able to do a diner with JeanFred in 2 weeks!

Pichon Lalande rock on the night i guess. The 1985 and 1989 are always showing great. The 1986 is a beast : sometime cool but sometime weird.

2000 Calon Segur will come around, but it always been a hard to predict St Estèphe.

2000 Pape Clément is up to my liking too. Modern but in a good way i guess.

Following the news weekly to know when our border will open, allowing me to go drink Bourgogne with Jim, in Maine .

[AlexR]

Quite something if you would place a Champagne in front of a 2000 Ducru.

I agree that Champagne can be fantastic, and in reports on meals such as this can often unjustly take a back seat because served at the beginning of the meal.

Alex R.

[marcs]

This was the hardest kind of night for me -- huge lineup of fantastic / interesting wines, too good and interesting to spit easily but too many of them for me to physically handle without spitting. As usual I ended up not spitting enough and fighting a war with my body as to how much alcohol I could absorb without unfortunate physical side effects. Many thanks to Joel for putting it together!

Just a few notes to Joel's notes --

The 85/86/89 Pichon Lalandes were a fantastic comparison, at a similar level of maturity but clearly showing vintage characteristics. I found all of them to be very good (didn't pick up that corked hint on the 86, but I am not very sensitive). Like Joel also found the 85 somewhat herbal/vegetal on first taste and I did not return to it later to see if it took a big leap. But I enjoyed the complexity from the herbal quality, I don't mind a touch of green in my wines. To me the 89 was the purest and most "balanced" of the three wines so I would have to give it the edge -- by "balanced" I don't necessarily mean the tannin/acid/fruit balance, all three were good on that, but the 89 had the best balance between size and complexity, while the 86 was more "big" and less detailed, and the 85 had the herbal complexity somewhat at the expense of the fruit, the 89 had it all. Also had a fantastic nose, best of the three I think. But it was close, and as I said I didn't return to the 85 for a second try.

The 2001 Pichon Lalande had an exotic and intense element on the nose, almost a torrefaction and burnt brown sugar quality, the palate was not so exotic but was broad and sweet with good aged complexity and the very beginning of tertiary notes. Really nice and becoming more distinctive than it was when I last had it about five years ago, but with many years to go given its size. Definitely had the softer more feminine aspect of PLL, and surprisingly rich for a 2001. Really liked this one and unfortunately I have only 3 bottles left. Note that this bottle, like my others, was purchased on release and professionally stored hence good quality.

The 2001 Pichon Baron was somewhat of a disappointment -- this wine has consistently over the years had a nice nose and a "thin" palate and I have gone back and forth on whether that meant it was too young or the fruit just was a bit inadequate for the tannins/acidity. On this bottle the fruit clearly felt a bit weak as the acid was prominent even though the tannin was not that strong. The other wines tonight were so strong that not sure if this 2001 would have done better on its own, but tonight it was a step behind. Note that I think this one was an auction purchase so there could be a storage issue.

The 2000 and 2008 Ducru were very good. But someone commented to me that he found Ducru a bit pruny/overextracted and I couldn't let his comment go tasting these wines. They just felt a bit heavier and more worked than the other wines in the lineup, not in a horrible Parkerized way but a noticeable one. People were saying the 2000 was young and it was very "dense" and compacted, clearly with many years to go to reveal further complexities, but I did feel like it was showing a lot -- definitely not shut down tight in the manner 2000s were a while ago. The 2008 was fresher and brighter than the 2000 but had a LOT of fruit and weight for a 2008. Both of these were very good wines, although I can't recall the adjectives I would use for them at the moment. But I wonder if drinking them alone might have let me judge better -- having set my palate with the light and delicate aged Pichon Lalandes I had a hard time calibrating if there actually was a stylistic issue or it was just the contrast. I have a case of the 2008 and 6 of the 2000 so I will get the chance to do my own experiments in the future!

I have had the 1995 GPL several times and have a half a case of it left to go, so didn't bother with it tonight, but can confirm it is an excellent wine -- a lot of cassis, a lot of richness for its age. I feel like it does have a lot of fruit but that plays a supporting/underpinning role to the spice complexity, as it should be for a 25 year old Bordeaux. I feel like this is entering a decade of peak drinking right now.

The 1959 Guiraud was indeed sensational -- like off the charts good both generally and for a wine of its age. The 1988 La Tour Blanche looked and tasted considerably older. Really a testament to the benefits of what must have been superb storage combined with long aging, because while it was very complex the complexity was gentle and the fruit sweetness was completely present and supported the complexity. There was none of the in-your-face biology experiment kind of complexity you sometimes get with very aged wine.

I also had the 06 Taittinger (I enjoyed this, it was quite rich and layered for a Champagne which I liked) and the 2014 Bouchard Genevrieres (as Joel says, fairly rich but with the hazelnutty/mineral quality to it you get in Burgundy and seemingly cannot be replicated in other regions, and which prevents the richness from being sloppy...but it did lack some complexity at this point)

[JoelD]

Quite something if you would place a Champagne in front of a 2000 Ducru.

I agree that Champagne can be fantastic, and in reports on meals such as this can often unjustly take a back seat because served at the beginning of the meal.

Alex R.

Very fair point, Alex. And I could easily move it down to about 6-7 on the list as all of those wines in the middle were almost equally awesome. More just personal preference and the fact that I kept going back to the Vilmart throughout the night. For perspective, I enjoyed the Comtes a lot, and it was down on the second half of the list.

As I stated, I don't usually like to compare different regions on the same ranking, so really you could just remove the champagnes and put them in their own order.

Same for the Guiraud. It was awesome, for a sauternes. However I have been less partial to those lately and favor other sweet wines such as german rieslings and Loire Chenin. Also just personal preference really. In a sweets only lineup, I have no doubt this wine would hold its own against many, many wines.

[JoelD]

The 2001 Pichon Baron was somewhat of a disappointment -- this wine has consistently over the years had a nice nose and a "thin" palate and I have gone back and forth on whether that meant it was too young or the fruit just was a bit inadequate for the tannins/acidity. On this bottle the fruit clearly felt a bit weak as the acid was prominent even though the tannin was not that strong. The other wines tonight were so strong that not sure if this 2001 would have done better on its own, but tonight it was a step behind. Note that I think this one was an auction purchase so there could be a storage issue.

Thanks for coming and bringing those 2001 Pichon's, Marcus. Very fun to try side by side.

Seems like we actually agree on a lot from this tasting. I actually just think that the 01 baron needed more time or a decant. There was about a glass left of each 2001 and I brought them home and tried the next day. Not surprisingly, the Baron showed better than the Lalande on the second day. I didn't detect anything off about the bottle. Just a much bigger wine. But if you've had other bottles of it recently, i'll defer to your experience. Either way, I thought it was a good wine. But yes the lalande was definitely better.

As for the 1986, I might be a bit of a victim of recency bias because on opening it was a very good wine. Right up there with the 89. But it definitely showed a small amount of TCA later in the night. And others must have found that too, as at least 40% of the bottle was left at the end.

[DavidG]

Great to see the gang getting together again. Great lineup and super notes to boot.

That 1989 Pichon Lalande, boy, I agree with you Joel. And Gerry. And Nic. And Marcus.

[Blanquito]

Great night, great write up! Well done.

A night featuring Pichon Lalande is always special in my book.

[Comte Flaneur]

Congratulations Joel and DC BWErs. What a super line up!

[Winona Chief]

It was quite an event, many thanks to Joel for putting this together. Great to see wine friends in person - great to see Joel and Eric and Marcus and others. Marjorie and I enjoyed joining this party.

As to the wines:

I enjoyed all of the Champagnes, they were all very different from each other. Only complaint, I thought the 2006 Taittinger Comtes did not show as well as previous bottles and wasn’t as enjoyable as a recent 2007 Comtes.

The Pichon Lalande vertical was the star of the evening for me. I thought the 1985 was rocking from the start - great aroma, interesting complex flavors with a bit of funk, top wine of the night for me. The 1989 was also outstanding, it’s really coming into top form. I didn’t get the corked flavor from the 1986 (I only had a brief taste of it early) to me, it seemed powerful but closed - not showing as well as last time I had it. The 2001 was very nice and a great example of the fine 2001 vintage.

Of the other red wines, my two favorites were the 1995 Grand Puy Lacoste and 2000 Ducru Beaucaillou.

Great to have an opportunity to taste that 1959 Guiraud, a well aged Sauternes that was as in great condition.

I thought the 2014 Bouchard Meursault Genevrieres was very good but a bit closed. There was almost half a bottle left which I shared with a white Burgundy aficionado on Sunday - it tasted great.

Chris Bublitz