rev,

great pictures. it is starting to all come back to me now.

Love the pictures. A word of advice to all, myself included: Smile with lips closed after drinking all that red wine.

FWIW...

I'm a bit contrarian. My WOTN was the 90 Rieussec Sauternes. I felt it finessed its way to the head of the pack. Right behind it was the Caliope. From the Cabernet flight I actually enjoyed the 94 Beringer PR better. Once again, I felt it was silky and drinking well right now. I thought the 92 Dominus needs more time.

WOW. I am now back among the living. What a night. It was so good to see many of you again, and to meet many of you for the first time. Thank you jb for organizing a 5 star evening. It was seamless. A shout out to the Mark. Very professional job. The pictures are great, Rev. But it is amazing how goofy people can look when there is so much wine around. Props to Mudpuppy for the food, and for volunteering to make the lobby runs to let people in to the after-party. A word of gratitude is also due the Buckingham for not arresting 20+ trespassers who co-opted the second floor common room. And last but not least, thanks to all who were generous to share their wine, stories and laughter. Now, on to the wines.

AT DINNER:

'96 Chartogne Taillet Fiacre Tete de Cuvee – Crisp and lively, with dough and citrus. 91 pts.

'01 Aubert Ritchie Vineyard Chardonnay – Disclaimer: I brought this wine, so feel free to consider me biased. But honestly, I had not opened one before Saturday night, so this was my first taste of it. Medium gold and very cloudy. Like fresh-squeezed lemonade. Thick legs. A fine, but unremarkable nose of vanilla, toast and pineapple. Huge on the palate. Gorgeous crème brulee crust, pineapple and honey. A very long finish. Best Chard I’ve had in a while. 94 pts.

'01 Guffens-Heynen Macon Pierreclos Le Chavigne – Started out funky on the nose, and the funk lasted a good 10 minutes. Like a strong whiff from a box of matches. Pegged as French. (Not too hard to discern). After the nose cleared up, this crystal clear, medium-gold chard performed admirably, though a bit too lemony for my liking. Strong minerality, with a bit of white pepper. 88 pts.


'01 Siduri Pisoni Vineyard Pinot Noir – Presented as Pinot “A”. Classic chocolate covered cherry notes with bright acidity. Excellent structure, but in need of cellaring. 91 pts.
'99 Ojai Pisoni Vineyard Pinot Noir – Pinot “B”. I confess to being stumped by this one. Side by side, I would have guessed this to be the younger of the two wines. And the feedback I got from this wine had me wondering whether it was a true Pinot. More velvety and round than I would have anticipated, with a more “espresso” characteristic than classic red fruit of a Pinot. But very complex and enjoyable. I preferred this over the other by a point. 92 pts.

'92 Dominus- My notes reflect that this has a “classic Bordeaux profile.” Leather, cigar, a bit of barnyard, forest floor and dust. Color-wise, I knew that this was not a young wine. But it was immediately apparent that it needed more time to fully integrate. I would have guessed it to be an ’89 Bordeaux in need of 10 more years. After the reveal, I would say give it 5-7 instead. Best Dominus I’ve had. This producer had yet to make an indelible mark on me before Saturday night. This bottle proved what all the fuss is about. 95 pts, and dry WOTN.

'94 Beringer Private Reserve – Considerable contrast to the Dominus. Unmistakably Napa with heady fruit and complex notes of espresso, blueberry pie and pipe tobacco. A more welcoming wine that, while still quite young, had no balance issues, and drank quite well. I would suspect it will hold for another 10 years without worry. 92 pts.

'90 Ch. Reiussec – Sweet WOTN. A perfect foil for the dessert. I could eat and drink that combination for 3 meals a day. (Sauterne…it’s not just for breakfast anymore.) Liquid gold. Still a youngster in color, nose and brightness. 95 pts.

NV Buller Muscat Calliope – Tough to judge. I am in a minority among this group of drinkers, but this sticky just isn’t my style. Seems better suited for pouring over pecan waffles. Certainly a tremendous display of the varietal and style, and for that I give it 92 points. But my palate just doesn’t allow me to go crazy over this thick, brown elixir.

THE AFTER-PARTY. (Short notes/score only. Let’s not kid ourselves. By this time of the night, trying to taste to provide a full description/rating would just be silly.)

2000 Albert Mann Gewurztraminer Furstentum Vieilles Vignes: Thank you Board-O. You promised you would get me to try a Gewutz that would open my eyes to the varietal. You succeeded. 93 pts.
2001 Shirvington Cab: OK. 89 pts
1994 Caymus: did not try.
1998 Hartford Port: did not try.
2001 Martinelli Pinot Noir Blue Slide Ridge: (Again, this was my wine so I might be viewed as biased…but based on the reaction of others, I am right in line.) WOW. Tied for dry wine of the after-party. 93 pts.
2000 Martinelli Pinot Noir Reseve: It’s not the ’99, but what is. Terrific. 91 pts.
1998 Shafer Hillside Select Cab. Got to try some of the 2 or 3 ounces that anthony did not pour into his Somm!!. Great wine from a maligned vintage. Tied for dry wine of the after-party. 93 pts.
2002 Hendrys Drive Cab: did not try.
2002 Hendrys Drive Shiraz: My first from this maker. Lovely stuff. 91 pts.
1996 Etude: did not try.
2001 Oliver Taranga Shriaz: did not try.
1997 Forman: Give it time. Has all the right stuff. 92 pts, but wait on it.
1999 Whitehall Lane: Well made wine, at a good price. 91 pts.
1997 Arrowwood Cab: did not try…damnit!! (Was too busy nursing the Shafer HSS, so don’t feel sorry for me.)
1970 Dows VP: HOLY SH*T! Thank You, Revlis. I hope I get to try this again when it isn’t my 20th wine of the evening. Seriously great wine. Sweet wine of the after-party. 95 pts.
2001 Aubert Chardonnay: Was still going strong, even 5 hours later.
2001 Guffens-Heynen Macon Pierreclos en Chavigne: Did not have at the after-party.
2001 Muscat de Beaunes de Venise: Winetex: It was me who said it tastes like the juice from the bottom of a cup of fruit cocktail. And yes, that was meant as a positive descriptor. Very pure, and not at all cloying. 91 pts.

Well, that just about wraps it up. Mrs. V and I had a WONDERFUL time. Please do look us up when you are in the area, because we plan on doing the same to you!

board-o,

nobody mentioned the pizza that we risked our lives, to go liberate from ray's pizza shop. what an adventure that was

Oh yeah. I forgot about that! LOL

Wow, sounds like I missed a hell of a party - glad to hear everyone's great response to the event.

So which one is Board-O and which one is budman in the photo (who is wearing the red shirt)???

Board-O is in the red shirt, which I saw him spill red wine on that night. Good call with the red shirt, Board-O.

jb

does it really matter? they are both aged bald guys
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board-o has the red shirt on.

i guess we posted at the same time jb

faces/names

I'm not sure who is who, but I think the guy in the red shirt is kind of cute.

actually, if you all must know. board-o brought budman along to act as his double just in case.

Great pics of the event, thanks Rev!! Woo-hoo!

Man what a night. I still have to collect all of my thoughts and get them down to a post. Soon. Soon.

i just wanted to take time to thank a few people from the event.

thank yous:

jb - for putting together such a wonderful dinner at one classy restaurant

rev - for keeping this site going through thick and thin no matter what

budman and wife - for putting up with me all weekend and carting my a$$ around. these people showed me so much hospitalitit and friendship for someone they met over the internet it is hard to fathom. if anyone makes it to the philly area make sure to look them up.

mudpuppy - for being the perfect roommate, even though i swear i felt something in the middle of the night. i think he tried to jump in bed and spoon me . and also for cleaning up the afterparty room.

tj - for hauling my wine up from dc for me and for giving me back a bottle of 01 laughing magpie. really, like what were the odds that was going to happen

ojeffso - also for taking time to pick up some wine and getting to mudpuppy for my return trip to pgh.

winetex - also for hauling a bottle from texas in the evil-keanevel wine chest for me

dr. tannin - for your gracious gift. you didn't have to do that but i am very touched. if you and the mrs. ever make it to pgh i promise you i will be at your beckon and we will have a great time.

board-o - for the night out on the town looking for food. i will never forget it.

and to everyone else thanks for making this one of the best weekends i have ever had in my life. you are all too kind and are one hell of a bunch of drinkers. i hope that i am not forgeting anyone, my mind is still a little foggy.

anthonyiez-
You're welcome. But who are all these other people??

What a night. I was very much looking forward to this event and it did not disappoint.

jb, you arranged one helluvan evening. Thank you, vielen dank and grazi! The folks at The Mark were extremely accommadating and went out of their way to make our experience very pleasurable. The food was great, I particularly enjoyed the dessert (paired with that Sauternes!). The squab was wonderful, the lobster was great (esp the meat from the claws!) and the lamb was tasty. Thanks also to all of you for sharing wines from your cellars, it was quite amazing. The raffle was exciting, even if I didn't win anything. The Grab Bag event was also fun (even if Ant got a bottle of the Laughing Magpie (I bought 2 more to add to the two I already had at home in June) which he doesn't like as much as me (Ant, PM me and we'll work out a suitable grab bag replacement for ya! (I feel terrible dude!))) -- I got a budman entry (which reminds me, we ought to start a thread on that) which blew me away. Also, got to hand off a couple wines I'd been couriering to him from jaimetown, picked up a few bottles from LCC to give to jaimetown, and got a couple of bottles budman had been holding for me, too. Woo-hoo!

The event was winding down and so was Mrs. TJ. So, off in her Magick Pumpkin she went and I headed to spend a few more hours with y'all at the Afterparty. Got to drink even more great juice. Thanks all for those who provided the wines and the food and everything. A special thanks to whoever was keeping me balanced while I tried to ram the ceiling tile back into the ceiling after my ceiling stretch to the alarm didn't do the trick to shut it off...

Anyway, I had an all around great time. Many thanks to all of you. I hope to do it again sometime soon. But, you know, what are we going to do NEXT YEAR to top this???

DINNER WINES
1996 Chartogne Taillet Fiacre Tete de Cuvee
I'll agree with Jimmyv's comments here where he said 'Crisp and lively, with dough and citrus. 91 pts.' I concur.

2001 Aubert Ritchie Vineyard Chardonnay
Golden and cloudy, I mistook this for a Kistler upon sampling the nose (of pineapple). I moved on to more pineapple, white pepper, grystalized ginger, scorched creme brulee topping (yes I mean that and not a generic caramel), and even seaweed&bean sprout salad (yes, I know, I am weird). Long, long finish. This is one heckuva wine. 94 TJ points.

2001 Guffens-Heynen Macon Pierreclos Le Chavigne
This wine had one funky nose that took time to blow off, I think almost 15 minutes. And, it suffered because of the side by side with the Aubert. Still, it developed into a nice wine.Sulfur nose blew off to reveal some nice white fruits like pear and white peach, maybe lichi (sp?). It clearly paired better with the lobster, too. I honestly can't remember anything about the finish so it must have been average as I didn't jot down anything positive or negative. I'll go with a scraping by 90 points.

'01 Siduri Pisoni Vineyard Pinot Noir
Heady cherries, slate, chocolate (not overpoweringly so) black rasperry -- a shorter finish than I'dhave expected. This was a good wine, IMO, but outclassed by the Ojai overall. Worth 90 TJ points.

'99 Ojai Pisoni Vineyard Pinot Noir
I got a sense of a lot of, uh, interesting descriptors that eventually merged into something quite beautiful. Chocolate cherry bomb, violets, cough medecine, vanilla extract later tranmogrified into blueberris and white chocolate. A great finish. Plus, this wine went quite well with the food, especially the later tastes of the food as it opened even more in the glass. Worth 92 TJ points.

1992 Dominus
Since I am not a drinker of many Bordeaux like the rest of you, I will take for granted that this wine had a 'classic Bordeausx profile'. I got plenty of leather, ashes, graphite, autumn spices, pomegranate and decayed hay. While I think this wine is drinking really well now, I think it will be even better in several years. This wine was not as good a pair with the lamb, IMO, as the Beringer was more food friendly, particularly with this course (lamb). Nice, nice finish. I need to figure out what a cigar box smells like to keep an eye open in the future. Worth 94 TJ points

1994 Beringer Private Reserve
I thought this wine was excellent. In fact, it easily rivaled the Dominus -- but did not beat the potential that the Dominus has. But the lamb with this wine was simply sublime. This wine was drinking extremely well right now. If I had any, I would find excuse after excuse to drink it now and over the next few years. I got plenty of currants, charcoal, purple roses (like the ones in my yard) and macerated red & dark fruits. A great mouthfeel and wonderful finish. IMO, this was catchintg this wine at the right time. I think the Dominus, in a few more years, will be even more amazing than this wine was at this time. Hence this gets the ever so small nod of 94+ points. My dry WOTN (at the main event).

1990 Ch. Reiussec
I will add to my original notes on this when I had it in June. Here's what I originally said-- "But this was some great juice. After being warned we could not say 'honey' as a descriptor, we dove right in. I will use 'honey' as a color description though, because that is what it looked like. Lots of general notes here, but it was loaded with butterscotch, apricot, strawberries, gree apple (yeah), varnish, creamy chunks (maybe white chocolate?) with carmelized pineapple." -- I'll add only that this got more velvety -- perhaps because I had a much, much better dessert pairing this time. I'll amend the apricot comment and change it to apricot gelato (and I can say that because I have had the real McCoy!). This wine was even better than in June when I rated it 94 points. This was my WOTN as I gave it 95 points. My one most interesting comment on my TN sheet was 'ungodly'.

NV Buller Muscat Calliope
All I wrote down for this one was 'toffifay' -- anyone remember that candy? This was one dripping sticky concoction that was a little overwhelming and concentrated. I haven't had enough of these to really fairly rate it. I could see that it was quite complex and it could be quite awesome. I just have no real point of reference for this stuff.

THE AFTER-PARTY WINES

2000 Albert Mann Gewurztraminer Furstentum Vieilles Vignes
I got to taste this, too. It was supple and wonderful -- I remember saying white peach and apricot sauce or something silly. Winetex, you were standing there, what the heck did I say? I think you said honeysuckle. It was great.

2001 Shirvington Cab
Did not try

1994 Caymus
Did not try.

1998 Hartford Port
Did not try.

2001 Martinelli Pinot Noir Blue Slide Ridge
Did not try (dagnabbit! It was gone before I knew it was there!)

2000 Martinelli Pinot Noir Reseve
Did not try -- also it was quickly gone.

1998 Shafer Hillside Select Cab.
This was super, super tight. It was difficult to evaluate. I wished I had had another glass to hold it in while I moved on.

2002 Hendrys Drive Cab
Did not try.

2002 Hendrys Drive Shiraz
Good Stuff. I think the 2001 is better, IIRC, but this was great 91-92 pts.

1996 Etude
Did not try, but this was excellent in June.

2001 Oliver Taranga Shriaz
I had a tiny sip of this, I think, but for the life of me I can't remember it.

1997 Forman
This is gonna be really good in a few years. Really good. Uh-huh.

1999 Whitehall Lane
Did not try. I think I was gone by now.

1997 Arrowwood Cab
Did not try. This was there?!?! Dagnabbit!

1970 Dows VP
This was great, great stuff. No idea how to rate it since it was my first vintage Port, but it was impressive. Amazing even. Thanks, Rev!!!

2001 Muscat de Beaunes de Venise
Did not try. I think I was gone by this time.

stemor, what's this about twins?

damn... just look at the excellent exposure of that picture... such color and clarity and sharpness.... in fact, I can even see.... um.. oh.. uh.. nevermind.

rev,

i think your camera make there hailines look a little bit fuller