Advertised in this morning's Journal. Sounds like it might be interesting if you are a BV fan.

Beaulier Vineyard Rare Older Vintage Holiday Wine Tasting.

Saturday, December 3, 2005, 12PM to 4PM.

Taste "extraordinary" wines from the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s.

Five tastes $30.

Many library wines will also be available for purchase at a special discount for this one day only.

Includes holiday music along with food by Elaine Bell Catering.

Reservations only (space is limited - must be 21)...
(707) 967-5233

1960 St. Helena Hwy, Rutherford, CA 94573

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I think it's a pretty good deal for $30. Cheaper than a lot of tasting rooms. I'm unhappy that we can't make it up there that day.

The 68 BV GDL has long been the the standard that I judge all other cab based wines. That being said, IIRC you cannot get the 66, 68 or 70 at the winery any more. They do have a lot of the off years.

That's funny. I judge cabs on the '70 BV GDL. I haven't had it recently, but it was a wonderful wine. I never had the '68, but it was always spoken of as a better wine.

The GDL used to be the only Cab that I would seek out. One could be assured that it would be a very good bottle of wine. But that was up until 1997. Now I don't buy the stuff at all.

Wern't they the first "victom" of JL sensitivity to TA?

I thought the wines dropped off after Andre Tchelistcheff (Beaulieu Vineyards' legendary winemaker from 1938 to 1968) retired and stopped advising years later.

I forgot about that. That was in the days when I didn't realize how large corporations could really screw up an acquisition. Decades later, I have seen it happen first hand time and time again. Usually the people who make decisions in large corporations could never have done what the entrepreneurs in the small companies did, so they never appreciate what made that company valuable enough to acquire. I've rea d that 60% of the mergers and acquisitions are failures. What is not stated is that only a small percentage of the time, the business that was acquired became better. Theorethically, small companies that are acquired should thrive because with larger financial backing, they could do things that they could not before, but the negative affect of management in the big company usually prevails.

There is also the fact that the folks who used to be running the accuired company are no longer interested in being part of their company once it is sold. So there are two things working here, the parent not really knowing what to do with the company they bought and the people who really were the backbone of the company no longer desiring to have any part of things (yes, I've seen this numerous times).

It happens in majority of the cases. At least 60% of mergers and acquisitions are failures financially in the short term. I'm sure the majority are failures in the long term.

I called by BV recently - I was early for a tasting at Lewelling. I used to be a Chalone shareholder, so I'm in the "Founder's Club". They poured 4 wines including the 02 GdL which was fine but frankly that worth half of what they were asking. There's a seperate room where they pour an older library wine. I asked what it was and was told it was a 91 GdL, but it was $10 each even though we were Fonders Club members. What the hell I thought and tried it anyway. He opened a new bottle.

What a waste of money. The wine was clearly past its best. The server admitted that it's a crapshoot and some bottles are nice, but this was just tired.