And we're off! (Early tomorrow morning) See you on Thursday!

Tim

Sorry to hear you got stuck in Rome Tim....did the airline at least get you a hotel?

What an awesome trip, coupled with a few negatives.  I'm going to write up a more exhaustive review when I find the time.  In the meantime, since this is a wine forum, I'll mention my wines of the trip.

#1  1983 Yquem.  David...thanks so much for sharing not just this one bottle with us, but all three of the Yquem's you brought along!  Wow....simply awesome stuff, but as Tricia noted, this was definitely the best of the three.

#2  2006 Is Argiolas Vermentino di Sardegna.  This white wine from Sardinia was simply incredible.....with perfect acidity and a wonderful bouquet.  The apricot on the mid-palate was sheer perfection.....and we found it on the way back to the ship in the duty free shop for less than 10 Euros!  I only bought one bottle.....but I'll be buying more online.  We had this in the restaurant at the Hotel Luci di la Muntangna.  The restaurant.....the wine....the food...the company.....all of it was incredible!  We had an awesome view of the harbor and you could see Corsica across the way.  Simply a perfect day...after we made our way out of the armpit city the ship dropped us off in, Oblia (forever to be referred to as Oblivion).

#3 2004 Cervaro della Sala.  Another stunning white wine, this one from Umbria.  We had this in a Pizzeria Aurora in Sorrento, an awesome Pizza joint with 1600 bottles on their wine list!  I bought two bottles from the restaurant for 33 Euros each....then found them at a wine store down the street for 30...so I didn't get taken too badly.  New friends John and Katie Fones also picked up two bottles, and Ed Kurtzman picked up one along with with something else I don't remember.  We liked the town of Sorrento so much I wish we had had an extra day to spend here, since we spent the bulk of our time on a trip to Pompeii.  After dinner the owner invited us to join him and he ended up popping a 1996 Coppo Monteriolo Piemonte Chard that was a real stunner.  Ed referred to it as better than white burgundy.....thats really saying something.  With the acidity in this wine it will easily age another 5 years.....awesome stuff!

#4 2004 Cusamano Jale Chard.  We had this at a restaurant in Castelmora, Sicily.  One of the best Chards I've ever had....why am I still buying any California Chard??  Italian whites are the way to go!

More notes later!

Chris

Lufthansa said they would get me a hotel but there were none left that they knew of. I called Oceana and they sent a guy to meet me. He brought along a local woman who got on the phone, hands waving, and called every hotel in the area. She got me a room at the Marriot Courtyard 3km from the airport. I'll work it out with Lufthansa for at least a partial refund. They said they would do that if I could find a room. By the time we got settled in it was close to 6:00pm. We thought of trying to get down to the city to surprise you folks but it was getting late and we were exhausted from the long day.

My wine of the trip not counting David, Ed and Dan's contributions was the 2001 Casanova di Neri Brunello di Montalcino Tenuta Nuova. We had it the same night that you had your #3 wine in Sorrento. We had dinner with new friends Frank and Julie from Tx. I saw the wine on the list for I think 130 euros. I got it because I wanted a Super Tuscan and it sounded familiar. Little did I know...

Massive tannins coming out on the finish on my first taste. No decantaur. After some glass time it really came around. Very full bodied but smooth. The fruit was intense as was everything else about this wine. Black fruit, leather, chocolate. This could probably spend more time in the bottle. (Is that an understatement?) And needless to say, it was spectacular paired with the variety of local Italian food in this somewhat "upscale" sidewalk seating Ristorante/Pizzeria called "La Basilica" on Via Sant' Antonino.

Anyway I had a few more Brunellos during the trip, and all were very good. For now obvious reasons, being that it was WS 2006 wine of the year, it stood out as the king.

And Erica and I agree with you Chris. This trip was like "White Wine Heaven". It seems like we just couldn't go wrong with the whites.

On our last night on the ship, we had Bordeaux night. John Fones picked out a '95 Lynch Bages and Ed K. picked out an '88 (?) I don't remember the wine at this point other than it was a Left Bank and not a first growth. And I picked, well, I picked that table to sit at.

They both spent about an hour in their respective decantaur. The Lynch Bages was still a little young. The tannins, while relatively smooth were a bit more sturdy that Ed's wine. Other than that it was smooth as velvet. The nose was a mixture of smoke, tobacco and earth with hints of dark fruit. The palate showed this wonderful sweet black currant fruit that felt silky smooth on the way down. Loved it. One of those wines that I just swirled and sniffed for about an hour. Ed's Bordeaux was similar in charcter except the tannins were much more smooth, the smoke was a bit more charred and there was a hint of pencil lead as well. Both wines were to be savored. I loved them both. I'll ask Ed what the Bordeaux was so that I can post it here.

So maybe those were my wines of the trip?

Tim

Edited to say: Ed says it was a Beychevelle from St. Julien

Yes!  Have you had it before?