London BWE

[Hm$(still)]

Ian and I convened an informal ‘95 tasting with some collected friends in London at the site of the 2022 Convention, Noize. Food was lovely, wines were great and the company was the best.

Highlight of the night for me was the ‘95 Mouton courtesy of Ian. The Lynch showed well especially with the food. The Clinet göt good reviews, and the Haut Bailly was a contender for runner up as well.

Hm$

[Nicklasss]

Nice to read and see the pictures. The 1995 are at a nice spot at 30 yo. I enjoyed the 1995 Haut Bailly also in London in summer 2022 with MC and liked the classic side of it.

Clinet left me good memories too. The Lynch i had long time ago was young and promising.

Good to see you, looks ingood shape like always.

I need to find a time to go back to London, before Russia get mad on UK…

[Claudius2]

Guys
Pretty good lineup.
Amy notes??

[SF Ed]

That looks like fun! How did they show?

1995 was the first vintage I bought on futures, and I always thought it was tougher and less generous than I'd like, but without the ripe fruit of other backward years like 1986. I have very few left. Maybe I should open a 1995 Montrose soon.

SF Ed

[Comte Flaneur]

It was such a pleasure to meet up again with Howard and Lisa again at the venue of the apotheosis of the March 2023 BWE London convention. They were ‘getting the hell out’ of there during the inauguration week. We had a nice little gathering with Brett and Michelle from Arizona, Howard and Lisa’s friends in the foreground and bottom left of the photo, who extraordinarily generously insisted on paying for all of us, and three of my friends.

You never know what you are going to get with 1995 Bordeaux and I was cautiously optimistic that these wines would show well but they were, frustratingly again, quite a mixed bag.

Of the two right banks the Clinet initially showed very well, and was fully mature. Unfortunately it didn’t hold up particularly well. I partly put that down to the wine warming up in the glass. The Certan De May was clearly past its best, but still drinkable. But maybe if you have any 1995 right banks it is time to broach them. The Haut Bailly, on the other hand, was just superb, and in a perfect spot. I still have the bottle that Nicolas gave me at the London convention so I look forward to opening it some time later this year.

The Ducru was not a particularly good bottle, benchmarked against the superb example I tried in November at a Ducru vertical. It tasted austere and tannic (brutally tannic on opening) and old and tertiary at the same time, as if it was caught in no man's land. However, I think it was quite liked around the table; but I know it can do better. The Lynch tasted a bit tinny to me, something pointed out by my other friend, who has little or no experience tasting wine. I think it may even have been slightly stripped/flawed. The last Lynch 95 I tasted - several years ago now - was much better. But again others were much more upbeat about it than I was.

The Mouton was ferociously tannic on opening, but when consumed four hours later was glorious and in a class of its own. You can drink your 95 Moutons now, but make sure you give them plenty of air time. The evening was topped and tailed by two exquisite wines: Thymiopoulos Blanc de Rosé 2009, a Greek wine and a red hot producer over here, is such a pleasure, and the SQN Mr K Straw Man sweet wine – generously supplied by Howard - you may be unsurprised to learn, was an absolute sex bomb; but a thrill too. Howard was it a chardonnay, semillon or marsanne?

Things may come and things may go, but great friendships endure.

[DavidG]

Good to see the pictures and posts. Fun lineup.

Mr. K Strawman was Semillon in 2000-2003, and Marsanne in 2005-2006. Beyond that I don’t know since I stopped buying.

[Hm$(still)]

It was a Chardonnay per the bottle in 2006

Hm$

[DavidG]

The 2006 Mr. K lineup:
2006 Straw Man was Marsanne
2006 Noble Man was Chardonnay
2006 Ice Man was Viognier