What happens after a Victorianist conference if you are lucky

J

Jonathan Loesberg

Jonathan Loesberg
I was up in Providence for my annual Victorianist conference, where the site coordinator was Mrs. Doghead, herself, Carolyn Betensky and I was staying with Carolyn and Robert. Carolyn and I walked in after the Conference Banquet and Robert proceeded to open a bottle of wine in the kitchen and pour us glasses. I sniffed, swirled and tasted and it seemed interesting and well-aged, but I couldn't guess more. Carolyn asked what it was and Robert said, nonchalantly, a Chateeauneuf du Papes. I paid a little more attention, but still wasn't getting much. Robert put the bottle down on the coffee table and it was a 1985 Rayas. So, in my best label worshipping manner, I decided to give up evaluation and just concentrate and see what I could learn. I don't get that many chances to taste Rayas, after all. Robert said it needed to stretch a little and warm up. Boy, did he turn out to be right. Over the course of the next 20 minutes, as if in a fast speed exposure of a flower opening, it just kept taking on more aromatics and taste. By the second glass, I was hooked. This is definitely a Cdp from before the aught's spikes in alcohol and ripeness and one for which the word elegant would not be a misnomer except the nose became too entrancing for a distancing word like elegant. Best end to a conference I've ever had. Thank you Robert and Carolyn.
 
You Victorianistd have all the luck. Our conferences usually end with dozens of chemists frantically exiting the confines to make their flights. What esprit de corps!

Mark Lipton
 
originally posted by MLipton:
You Victorianistd have all the luck. Our conferences usually end with dozens of chemists frantically exiting the confines to make their flights. What esprit de corps!

Mark Lipton
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It is an unusual conference in a lot of ways, the congeniality of the members being one of them. But you only get great wine at Robert and Carolyn's. The conference doesn't really get credit for that.
 
Nice, too, that they seem to have chosen something with their guest in mind, not the more northerly swill most of us others favor. Thoughtfulness enough to generate the closest thing to a tn from da prof.
 
originally posted by MLipton:
You Victorianistd have all the luck. Our conferences usually end with dozens of chemists frantically exiting the confines to make their flights. What esprit de corps!

Mark Lipton
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Conferences are shit and I now generally avoid them and have dropped all memberships to any societies. The whole humble-brag thing about business grates on my nerves. This is why I often feel like science is just moving sideways, people don't slow down to think. I blame it on the professionalization and rewards going to a certain type of worker bee rather than thinkers.

Anyway, soapbox dismount. I'm doing a session this summer with one of my friends. We'll do the session and then spend the rest of the time eating and drinking and working through a couple of (semi-) thorny stats problems.
 
originally posted by Scott Kraft:
A lucky man indeed.
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This.

Not buying Rayas when it was less expensive was probably a mistake (though it's always been too expensive for me).
 
originally posted by VLM:
originally posted by Scott Kraft:
A lucky man indeed.
Click to expand...

This.

Not buying Rayas when it was less expensive was probably a mistake (though it's always been too expensive for me).
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Indeed. When Beaucastels cost like $15-20, Rayas cost something like $60. That's a fair amount of money to me now. It was a lot more in the late 80s and early 90s. It's why the number of Rayas's I've had is so small.
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
Nice, too, that they seem to have chosen something with their guest in mind, not the more northerly swill most of us others favor. Thoughtfulness enough to generate the closest thing to a tn from da prof.
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Although Robert could come off as contentious at times, he is one of the most thoughtful people you could ever meet.
 
originally posted by Yixin:
Rayas was never 3/4x the price, ex-cellars. Same with Henri Bonneau.
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When I visited Rayas in 1991 (a story I have dined out on many times), I bought the 89 Rayas for ca $30 a bottle. I think the price hike was 2X in the US. This was quite par for the course in those days. When 82 cents bought a euro, I occasionally saw 3X mark-up, but only rarely. When the dollar falls, you can sometimes find the wines at the same price here as there if the domaines sell their own wine much more expensively to individuals than to importers. But 2X is still a decent rule of thumb. I haven't been back to Rayas, but the Chateau des Tours CdR and Vacqueyras mark-ups for the US market seem quite high, certainly more than 2X. If they were more normal, I think there would be more of a market here for those wines.
 
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