Roll call.......

I'm alive. more later, coffee NOW

Unfortunately, the snow's not only on the ground, but also feels like it's between my ears after last night...

we got at least 6" of snow last night. But I'm alive and well and glad I didn't finish the wine (and open another bottle).

Thanks for the wonderful dinner last night guys. The food and wine were wonderful, the service excellent and the conversation hilarious! The DC Cru took a table (and 50% of the restaurant's stemware) and had a grand old time. Present were:

Corkage
swill (Mike)
T-Rep
JohnnyB
Fred
Dinwiddie
Jaimetown

Our waitress Johanna was super as she kept the fresh stemware coming (to the chagrin of the dishwasher) and decanted and served our wines properly with good humor. Everyone seemed happy with their food - at one time I had my steak in front of me with 6 glasses of wine - LIFE IS GOOD!

Well here are my briefly scribed notes for the evening (in order poured)...

FLIGHT 1 - Chard/Pinot

1) Renteria 1999 Carneros Chardonnay
Aromas of churned butter, figs, creamy tropical fruits arise from this wonderful nose. This wine possessed tremendous purity and focus, and had an elegant, persistent finish. Fantastic- my kind of chardonnay. 92 pts. Thanks Mike (Corkage's friend).

2) William Seylem 2000 Hirsch Vyd. Pinot Noir
Dark ripe cherries on the nose with hints of cinnamon. Plump and generous on the palate, the ripeness of the fruit is in great balance without succumbing to overly alcoholic/hot characteristics. Wonderful - thank you T-Rep. 91pts.

FLIGHT 2 - Older Cabernets

3) Chappellet 1976 Cabernet Sauvignon
Compelling nose of dark olives, smoked meat and leather with ripe black fruits. Plush and soft, this medium-bodied wine was drinking beautifully last night. Kept opening up as the night went on. 93 pts. Thanks Fred.

4) BV 1980 George de Latour Cabernet Sauvignon
Ah, this is why I love older wines! Plush dark fruits on the nose with a dollop of peat, caramel, vanilla interweaved. Soft on the palate, but still have plenty of fine-grained tannins. An interesting note of Japanese seaweed (dried, toasted and salted) on the finish. Drinking well now, but still have good years ahead (a few more than the Chappellet) - wonderfully balanced, my WOTN. 94 pts. Thank you Corkage.

FLIGHT 3 - A Beringer, a mystery wine and a Dalla Valle

5) Beringer 1996 3rd Century Cabernt Franc
Initally a slightly funky nose of rice and miso blew off quickly to reveal very savory aromas. Nice midpalate and an elegant finish. I would love to try to pair this with heartier comfort cuisine - cassoulet anyone? 90 pts. Thank you Dinwiddie.

6) Mystery Wine
I brought this blind and Johanna our waitress decanted this secretly. We managed to avert the furtive glances of JohnnyB and Fred whose not-so-suddle attempts to ascertain the identity of the wine were futile. Upon opening I tasted this to make sure it wasn't corked and it was left in the decanter for a good 1.5 hours. When it was poured, the wine displayed elegant aromas of ink, dark cherries and some earth. The tannins were resolved and the taste of sweet delicate new oak lingered on the palate. Reactions by the gallery were lukewarm, as it should've been. 88 pts. When the identity of the wine was revealed, there were more than 1 on the faces of the tables followed by some expressions of . It was a 1998 Quilceda Creek.

7) Dalla Valle 1995 Napa Cabernet Sauvignon
The confirmed superstar of the evening, everyone was looking forward to trying this baby, and she did not disappoint. Sweet dark fruits, brown sugar (honey honey!) with high-toned floral aromas dancing in your nostrils. Medium to full-bodied, it possessed smooth tannins with a long, persistent finish. Very fine. 93 pts. Thanks JohnnyB.

FLIGHT 4 - THE CLOSERS

8) Karl Lawrence 1997 Napa Cabernet Sauvignon
Well, the next two bottles were "backups" that were opened spontaneously. Here my notes start to fall apart a little bit. Opened and poured without any decanting, the KL displayed a wonderful nose of sweet dark red fruits. Still quite primary, but delicious and balanced. Thanks again Dinwiddie. 92 pts.

9) Cooper-Garrod 1997 George's Vyd. Cabernet Sauvignon
This was my backup bottle, and the closer for the night. Sweet in fruit like the 97 KL, but more high-toned. This was my 9th bottle from my case this year, and every bottle has been in the 90-94 point range for me. This was no exception. 92 pts.


Thanks again to everyone for a heck of a time. The LOTN (line of the night) goes to Corkage's friend Mike who said to Dinwiddie: "Man, if I were you, I would be wrecking havoc on your wife every night!"

Gentleman (and I use that term loosely),
Thanks very much for the invite last night. I awoke this morning to the sound of a jackhammer pounding inside my head... Great wine - great company! (Michael)

Welcome aboard swill - it was great meeting you and T-rep last night!

Folks...

Ditto Swill's comments about the good company, wine, food, etc. The fog seems to finally be lifting from my head so there's hope that today might actually be productive.

It was a pleasure to meet you all in the flesh and to put a name/face with your online personas.

Jaimetown, thanks for the copious notes.

Did I hear last night that the next theme will be Italian? Dates anyone?

Thanks again for the comeraderie.

T-Rep

Man I am envious. Sounds like you had a most excellent time. With a little luck, I hope to make the next event. Nice, nice line-up of wines.

Any pictures? Any thoughts on the food?

Hew Swill, nice to see you posting. Woo-hoo!

Fellas-
Great time last night! Has anyone heard from Dinwiddie or is he still passed out on a metro somewhere! The Renteria was just awesome thanks Swill. My WOTH night was real toss up but the 80 BV GDL I think won out. It was great to see the Chappellet drinking so well I think this is pretty close to it's peak. Maybe it was just me but I got the most amazing noze of clover honey from this wine. The Williams Seylem was really good as well, That was a wine I could easily drink on daily basis and live wicked happily. The DV was a monster as expected thanks Johnny! Jaimie thanks very much for the QC that was a wine that I have yet to have the chance to drink but allways wanted to. I thought It was very good. If we did all of these blind and then ranked them by age I think everyone would have taken that for an older wine. The Cab Franc was a really nice way to break up the intensity of the cabs. This had a great mouth feel and opened up very well over a half hour or so.

I have to say the Caucus Room was top notch last night. Great service awesome beef and I've never seen that many bordeaux stems in one place before. I was amazed they replace every glass before pouring a new wine, very attentive. We didn't get any of the corkage comped even after offering a small taste of everything to Johanna but whatever no big deal. All we needed a bottle of really old VP and a cheese plate (Jaimietown) and we would have been set! I applaud the use of back up bottles! And I'm slightly ashamed I was the only person to leave with a back up bottle in tow.

I'll be calling Jennifer at the Caucus Room this afternoon and I'll relay all of our sentiments about the fantastic time we had.

TJ I hope luck is on your side since we appointed you the coordiantor of the next event.

I had a perfectly cooked, 16oz. bone-on prime rib eye, salty and crusty on the outside and a cool medium rare on the inside. Wicked. The Caucus Room is s sister restaurant of Sam & Harry's and I LOVE S&H's.

For an appetizer I had rabbit sausage, biscuit and mushroom cream sauce. Very good but the sausage was a tad salty.

My take on the wines, in no particular order

1. 80 BV GDL, a little funky at first but very nice after about 1.5 hours. The tannis are gone so I don't think I'd hold for much longer. RGS (92)
2. 00 WS Pinot Nior, I'm a pinot fan and this one did me right. RGS (91)
3. 95 Dalle Valle, awesome, should be ranked higher than the Pinot but I like pinot RGS (92)
4 TIE: 98 Quiceda Creek (RGS 90) and 99 Renteria Chard (RGS 91). The QC didn't show well amongst the company and I was expecting a much bigger wine with more ummph but it tasted very nice nonetheless. The Chard was very good, lots of good fruit and french oak.
5. 76 Chappellet. Also very good but still had firm tannins RGS (90)
6. 96 Beringer Cab Franc. Never been a huge cab franc (unless its mixed in my bordeaux) so I not a good judge here. I'd give it more time in the bottle GS/RGS (89-90)
7. TIE 97 Karl Lawrence and Cooper Garrod Cabs. Too buzzed to tell, pecan pie was huge and oozing from the center.....RGS (90+)

No pictures, but Johnny and Swill spotted a lonely blond at another table that appeared to bored with her family gathering.....

Man am I FEELING THE LUV! I'm reliving the evening (sans hangover) as I read everybody's comments. Great way to truly revel in the moment. Thanks again for a terrific welcome to a most enviable group of people partaking of a most enviable assortment of fantastic wines!

Yeah that blonde was HOT wasn't she. She had that whole fuzzy off the shoulder Marryln Monrow sweater action going on with the short blond hair to boot. YIKES!

Hot blonde, what hot blonde?? See what happens when the action is behind you, as it obviously was last night!

Travel rep, she was behind you and DW... I think the wine was getting to Johnny and Swill and the low cut blouse with the black furry stuff was interfering with their judgment..

TJ, no pictures this time.

Corkage, maybe it was better that only the wine interfered with my judgement...but a hot blonde in the area couldn't be that bad.

Per the blond: I found her to be easy on the eyes and soft to the nose. I immediately noticed a strong bouquet of passion with an ever so delicate hint of both leather & lace. I would guess that she was a classic Washingtonian blend of 50% Goodgirl and 50% Badgirl - silverspoon aged for at least 18-22 years. I think she will continue to age well for another 5-10 years before becomming suddenly bitter and tanic. I give her an 89 ( I would have liked to rate her as high as 92+, but I noticed a strong bitchy after taste as the evening progressed).

swill... LOL!

And welcome to the forums!

swill, you do have a way with words my friend