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Nice notes for wines drank at such a fabulous place and the nearby ski resort that my wife and I love dearly. The wines just have to be better at this venue.

It was a treat to attend for the first time and feel the energy, the commitment to something worthwhile, the fellowship and camaraderie, the dedication of many who put out tons of time for the set up, silent auction wines/ items, food, serving, cleanup and effort to make this happen. Frank and the c...

If you ever run across it, 1976 Dom Perignon is another great aged Champagne (though I drank it a while back so I'm not so sure what it would be like now). I was skeptical when I got a couple of bottles at auction, but they weren't particularly expensive, so I thought it worth the gamble. Great stu...

Blake, The 1982 Cristal and the 1985 Krug-Clos du Mesnil are the finest vintage champagnes I've ever had the privilege to drink, including D/P and D/P rose from the sixties. Absolutely stunning! What are the future 1982s of later vintages? At age 37, it's a considerable time investment, considering...

Blake, Great to hear about your epiphany! I agree with your assessment about '82 Cristal being around five years away from its apogee. I think many of the best Champagnes from '82 have just entered their tertiary stage and will stay there for the next decade plus. Ray, Although I mentioned you in t...

Chris Seiber wrote: ↑
February 15th, 2019, 8:37 am
Great notes, as always, Blake. Old Champagne is hit and miss, but good old ones are so fascinating and distinctive.

Chris, I've never had a hit until this one so the odds were way in my favor.

See you soon my friend. We're out the door for OC in minutes.

I am now a believer. I`e finally been baptised by an “older” champagne that I actually enjoyed; in fact, it may be one of the best champagnes I’ve ever had. Our blind wine tasting group recently held its almost annual Valentine/ champagne event at our usual venue, in the barrel room of the Santa Bar...

Anton D wrote: ↑
February 13th, 2019, 4:24 pm
Butt is a form of chugging, right?

We could be RUNing the gamet of a TUN of jokes over this post and have a BARREL of fun, BUTT I`ll roll with the PUNCHes and HEAD on down the PIPE.

I heard the term pipe of Port used during a recent Taylor Fladgate retrospective from 1890-2016. New to me, I looked it up and there`s a lot more sizes new to me as well. Here's a link for some info:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_wine_cask_units

Yes, but for entirely different reasons and interest since subscribing in the early 90s.

Love Lambrays. Always delivers for me. Thanks for the notes Blake. I`m a fan of Lambrays as well. I`ll always remember the 1990 of this verssion which I ordered off the wine list at Latour d`Argent in Paris. Two couples of us had already had 2 bottles of champagne and this was so good, we ordered a...

CJ Beazley wrote: ↑
February 12th, 2019, 3:34 pm
Great notes BB, the food sounded great also. Hey, just out of curiosity what happened to the label of the SQN?

I just figured that this was a product of Krankel`s quirkiness. The photo was taken from 2 angels.

crickey wrote: ↑
February 12th, 2019, 2:41 pm
Your description of the Ponsot says 1995, but the label in the picture shows 1998.

Thanks for the heads up. Typo and editing issue.

Our dinner group held it`s once a year Winner Gets Dinner event at bouchon, the restaurant where we typically do our Millennium dinner in December. Instead of being located in the separate, private and most appropriately wine related ambience Cork Room, we were set up on the outside enclosed patio t...

Thanks for the great notes and photos, Blake. I've been deciding on which 2016 Ports to buy, so this was a fine data point. Do you have any producer preferences for any particular reasons? Good question and one that is easy to answer. My limited experience with Port has been with mostly "older" vin...

Thanks for the great notes and photos, Blake. I've been deciding on which 2016 Ports to buy, so this was a fine data point. Do you have any producer preferences for any particular reasons? Good question and one that is easy to answer. My limited experience with Port has been with mostly "older" vin...

Blake Brown wrote: ↑
February 7th, 2019, 4:55 pm

Eric Ifune wrote: ↑
February 7th, 2019, 4:11 pm
Any idea when the 1934 Colheita was bottled?
Great tasting. I keep telling myself I need to invest in a Tux.
As stated in the notes, I heard 1977, but will check again to be sure.

Yes, it was bottled in 1977 as now confirmed by Don.

Eric Ifune wrote: ↑
February 7th, 2019, 4:11 pm
Any idea when the 1934 Colheita was bottled?
Great tasting. I keep telling myself I need to invest in a Tux.

As stated in the notes, I heard 1977, but will check again to be sure.

Option #1= pizza/ Indian

FWIIW. I do recall Darrel Corti mentioning Graham is typically the sweetest of all houses. For me, that is a major consideration as I`m not that much into the sweet stuff, certainly not more than a taste.

Thanks for the great notes and photos, Blake. I've been deciding on which 2016 Ports to buy, so this was a fine data point. Do you have any producer preferences for any particular reasons? Good question and one that is easy to answer. My limited experience with Port has been with mostly "older" vin...

Hank Victor wrote: ↑
February 7th, 2019, 9:13 am
wow....

Amazing event and notes! Thanks for sharing Blake.

Purely my pleasure Hank.

I saved every glass in order to return to most for later comparison tasting. Each had the vintage denoted on the base of the stem. This photo shows the rows of the lineups from the last back to the first flight:

Evidently, there is a limit as to how many photos can be added to the first post and I ran out of space, so here are others: fullsizeoutput_222b.jpeg fullsizeoutput_222c.jpeg fullsizeoutput_222d.jpeg fullsizeoutput_222e.jpeg fullsizeoutput_222f.jpeg fullsizeoutput_2230.jpeg fullsizeoutput_2231.jpeg

Recently, I attended another once in a lifetime Vintage Port tasting luncheon that has to rank in the top echelon of my all time wine experiences. My friend, Don Schliff, now retired CEO of Wine Imports for Wine Warehouse in LA has put on many Vintage Port tastings/ events since 1985 when he and Add...

We shall continue to rain in with love, charitable support and good people along with good food and wines.

I'm good with it too.

Why are you being a little bit silly Blake? Blake is quite serious. [snort.gif] And no reds with din-din? Pretty adventurous. Yes, I rend to take spots serious especially from folks I'm not familiar with. I most of my real life, I'm not all that serious all the time. As to the absence of reds, the ...

Jeremy Holmes wrote: ↑
February 2nd, 2019, 7:16 pm
He is carrying the Champagne, Michael thought the Champagne carrier was awesome. I'm just being a little bit silly Blake.

Sorry. I was way slow on the take here- got it now.

alan weinberg wrote: ↑
February 2nd, 2019, 11:21 am
lovely evening.

Alan, it was the kind of evening most of us live for.

Mich@el Ch@ng wrote: ↑
February 2nd, 2019, 3:48 pm
That champagne carrier is awesome

Its truly more awesome than the photo captures and its solid and heavy.

Jeremy Holmes wrote: ↑
February 2nd, 2019, 4:05 pm

Mich@el Ch@ng wrote: ↑
February 2nd, 2019, 3:48 pm
That champagne carrier is awesome
I think his name is David Osenbach. He does have very surprised looking eyes.

What am I missing a jeremy? I mention his name in the body of the post as well as below the photo.

We traveled to LA to spend and evening with dear friends and dine out at the fabulous Providence restaurant. Soon after arriving at their home, we sat in front of a crackling fire and enjoyed some of the fine 2012 Louis Roederer Brut Rose that I`ve been so happy with over the past 6 months. fullsize...

Went back to the remnants of the Brunello last night after being vacuum pumped and a 3 day stay in the frig. I found another blatant example of a wine improving over time and in this case, immensely so. It was richer, fruitier and more balanced giving righteous amounts of blackberry and plum with so...

Dinner with a good friend included 2 good wines to pair with the fine pizzas we ordered: 2006 WHITCRAFT WINERY BIEN NACIDO VINEYARD Q BLOCK SANTA MARIA VALLEY PINOT NOIR- knowing that this has been one of my all time favs, it was brought to share the love and love it got; two of the characteristics ...

Mike Grammer wrote: ↑
January 28th, 2019, 1:40 pm
Very nice cross-section there, Blake. We *can* get the Lanson Noble up here and I have a bottle at home now.

Sante,

Mike

I think you'll like the Rose Mike. I find to to be in balance and a pleasure to drink alone or in pairing with the right food.

Fine notes and sounds like a great evening. Thanks for posting. I have a few of the Dal Forno's sleeping and may be time to check in on one. It is amazing that he can get that kind of concentration and extraction while still maintaining a good sense of balance. Totally agree Greg. Very consistently...

Having leftovers of the champagne and WS RRV, we just went back and re-tasted 3 days later and found both to be much better than the original showing which was good in both cases. The Lanson rose champagne was richer and more fruity, deliciously good and the Pinot was substantially better having a s...

Our dinner group enjoyed another fine evening with 7 of us dining at Olio Pizzeria, a connected extension of one of the finest Italian restaurants in the area, Oilo y Limone. With a wide open wine theme, we drank the following: NV LANSON NOBLE CUVEE BRUT ROSE- as with previous samplings, this had ni...

The Netherlands is celebrating the 350th anniversary of Rembrandt`s death this year in Leiden. Here's a link for more: https://www.afar.com/magazine/why-the-netherlands-needs-to-be-on-every-art-lovers-list-this-year?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=012319_Netherlands%202019&utm_term...

Blake thanks for sharing. I’ve enjoyed all the ABC and Clendenen family wines I’ve had, in particular a 2008 Clendenen Nobiolo. I like his wines because I feel like everything I’ve tried has been “good for all time Zones”. Meaning something that geeks like us can enjoy, as well as folks who may be ...

Blake, Nice lineup of wines there. I just had the PG/PB blend a week ago and really liked it. Had I been there, I would've chided Jim for not bringing the ThumbsUp Riesling that he & Bob made afore they grafted that X-Block R over to Syrah. A shame they don't still have R at BienNacido. Tom Hi Tom....

Winemaker Dinner with Jim Clendenen We were graced to be invited to join good friends for one of the winemaker series of dinners put on by La Cumbre Country Club, this time featuring our dear friend, Jim Clendenen. Upon entering the dining room, we were greeted by servers pouring 2 ABC starter wines...

Same things happen to me when I try to pour a Barolo - muted, hot, tight, lame, off. If I stand it up for a week, decant for several hours, nearly always shows well. It gets harder and harder to drink well when all my impulse bottle openings fail like Blake’s... Noah, I seem to be having this exper...

John Glas wrote: ↑
January 18th, 2019, 5:30 pm
Sounds like you enjoyed it.

Eventually, but not to the extent of past visits.

Very interesting and impressive list of wines, my friend. And no surprise about your favorite Wines in each flight. It is a little challenging having wines with such different bottle ages on them together, no? And bummed that I wasn't able to sneak any of my wines in there :-) Cheers One of the rea...

BTW the best local Syrah I've come across IMHO other than just about every one Jaffurs has made, especially with Thompson fruit, comes from ABC. Jim blended varying amounts of Viognier into them and they are absolutely fabulous and long living. Huh, I hold Jim Clendenen’s wines in high regard, but ...

That's a great lineup. You may like the Beckmen Purisima Vineyard Mountain Grenache (or PMV Grenache). It's consistent every vintage I've had it in over a decade. The blend is usually over 90% grenache and completed with syrah which seems to richen it up. One of my favorites from Beckmen every year...

Another recent in the mood opening of a Spanish Tempranillo proved to be the wrong choice {the 05` Vina Bosconia was the other} as i found this wine to be in a valley stage rather than an expression of it peak potential which I experienced during the last visit. 1994 R. LOPEZ de HEREDIA VINA TONDONI...

Very interesting and impressive list of wines, my friend. And no surprise about your favorite Wines in each flight. It is a little challenging having wines with such different bottle ages on them together, no? And bummed that I wasn't able to sneak any of my wines in there :-) Cheers One of the rea...

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