Beaucastel tasting format??

Peter Creasey

Peter Creasey

Peter Creasey
A Ch Beaucastel CNdP tasting is being considered. About 15 - 20 vintages, say...

'70, '85, '88, '89, '90, '94, '95, '96, '97, '98, '99, '00, '01, '03, '04, '05

What would you recommend as the format?

1) Walk-around tasting with different stations and a buffet table available in the room? or

2) Seated with flights and one tasting-appropriate food served for all flights e.g., beef tender, cheese, crackers, fruit? or

3) Multi-course dinner with different vintages with each course? or

4) Serve anything blind? or

5) Other? (please explain!)

If structured, I would definitely serve in youngest to oldest order so let's please not get bogged down discussing pros/cons on this aspect.

Thanks for any/all ideas!

. . . . . . Pete
 
Depends how many people per bottle. More than 12 you can't really drink the wines.

If you can source a bottle in Europe, don't skip '81.
 
originally posted by scottreiner:
originally posted by SFJoe:


If you can source a bottle in Europe, don't skip '81.
Click to expand...

what is the difference between 81 sourced in europe and the us?
Click to expand...

It's a long story involving a litigation, not specific to '81 Beaucastel. I hesitate to get into it on a board. A search of the alt.food.wine archive, John Gilman, and Wildman might get you somewhere. Or you could ask me the next time we meet.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
originally posted by scottreiner:
originally posted by SFJoe:


If you can source a bottle in Europe, don't skip '81.
Click to expand...

what is the difference between 81 sourced in europe and the us?
Click to expand...

It's a long story involving a litigation, not specific to '81 Beaucastel. I hesitate to get into it on a board. A search of the alt.food.wine archive, John Gilman, and Wildman might get you somewhere. Or you could ask me the next time we meet.
Click to expand...

You can go back that far in the records on alt.food.wine? Man, that thread is how I first met John and .sasha. My first words to John I believe were, "How many times do you have to bend over?"
 
I think that incident (both the initial post and the forced apology) has been wiped from the records. At least, I couldn't find it, though I could find plenty of references to it (Chuck Miller and Robert Callahan bickering...ah, memories). Maybe a cleverer search will unearth it.
 
Without I hope getting into litigious grounds, those who have tasted 81 from the domaine and 81 bought in the US frequently find the latter less vibrant in ways that can suggest the belief that the latter wine was heat damaged in transport. This perceptual judgment, though widely held, does not prove that the wine was in fact heat damaged, mind you. But the perceptual judgment is sufficiently widely enough held as to give SF Joe's recommendation some force regardless of the empirical source of said commonly held perceptual judgment.

Lawyers who can suggest further self-protective circumlocutions are welcome to suggest further edits to this message.
 
Why not break it up into several dinners and spend more time with each wine? I like to drink as much as the next guy but that looks like a lot to get through. Will you go from oldest to youngest vintage?
 
originally posted by Kay Bixler: Why not break it up into several dinners and spend more time with each wine? I like to drink as much as the next guy but that looks like a lot to get through. Will you go from oldest to youngest vintage?
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Kay, I have done tastings over a two-day period...a very lengthy '74 Calif retrospective a very good example. It worked well but it was difficult to manage, especially with everyone's busy calendars.

I lean toward a one-time event...definitely serving youngest to oldest (I would like for this issue debate to not begin right now).

. . . . . . Pete
 
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