RIP PAB: 2011 R Leroy Chenin Noëls de Montbenault

M

MLipton

Mark Lipton
While I never met PAB, I did enjoy reading his TGJP posts over the years, especially as he was one of the fraternity of Grenache drinkers here. Largely because of his championing of Richard Leroy’s wines, I purchased this Chenin, opened tonight with jambalaya. It surprised me by being clearly on the sec side of Chenin, with a mid weight frame and a bracingly acidic spine. In style, it most resembled to me the Mineral+ bottling of Frantz Saumon. Not likely to push Huet out of my affections, it nonetheless provides great pleasure at age 6. It is a shame that PAB isn’t around to hear this assessment.

À votre santé,
Mark Lipton
 
As the Disorderly Ambassador to the TGJP (and one-time titular tyrant thereof) I have shared a bottle (or more) with pab and the gang and found the Leroys fairly sec-ish and middle weight as well.

On a more general note, sadly, the TGJP is no more, due to the passage of time and the general way these kinds of things work. pab was much too young to go so suddenly and it is still hard to wrap my head around the whole thing. I continue to see his widow, M-S, when I travel to Paris and will pass your kind words to her.
 
originally posted by Cole Kendall:
As the Disorderly Ambassador to the TGJP (and one-time titular tyrant thereof) I have shared a bottle (or more) with pab and the gang and found the Leroys fairly sec-ish and middle weight as well.

On a more general note, sadly, the TGJP is no more, due to the passage of time and the general way these kinds of things work. pab was much too young to go so suddenly and it is still hard to wrap my head around the whole thing. I continue to see his widow, M-S, when I travel to Paris and will pass your kind words to her.
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Merci, Le Bon Tyran.

Mark Lipton
 
i loved leroy's wines and bought about 4 cases over about 4 vintages. delicious a year or so after release but the ones i let sleep a little longer were very disappointing. some were oxidized, some just tasted sour, others were just dead. i stopped buying them but am still puzzled as to what the hell happened to such damn good wines that i was sure would have rewarded medium term cellaring.
 
It was first Laurent Charvin and then PAB, within a couple of weeks of each other, who introduced me to Leroy. It's merely too bad that Leroy's prices have climbed North of my tolerance. PAB's absence and the end of the TGJP I still haven't resigned myself to.I
 
originally posted by Cole Kendall:
As the Disorderly Ambassador to the TGJP (and one-time titular tyrant thereof) I have shared a bottle (or more) with pab and the gang and found the Leroys fairly sec-ish and middle weight as well.

On a more general note, sadly, the TGJP is no more, due to the passage of time and the general way these kinds of things work. pab was much too young to go so suddenly and it is still hard to wrap my head around the whole thing. I continue to see his widow, M-S, when I travel to Paris and will pass your kind words to her.
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What happened to TGJP? They could not soldier on without PAB?
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
What happened to TGJP? They could not soldier on without PAB?
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TGJP was the name that pab gave to dinners that he and M-S would put on in their apartment (the VIP room). When they dined elsewhere (at the home of some of the other participants) the dinners were not written up as TGJP. It sounded much more official than it was.

While the relationships among the various participants continue (and evolve as stuff happens), when they dine together there is no official documentation as there once was. I see M-S regularly and some of the others from time to time.
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:

PAB really did give the impression of a more-organized thing.
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The write-ups really displayed his wit and fanciful creativity. Not that it was fiction, but he created narratives and themes in a Coad-ian way (to mention another legend) that were not literal renditions of the evening.

Which is why I always thought he should have fit in more here, but I guess there were other personality dimensions that sometimes clashed.
 
I never fully got the arrangement of the TGJP. When I told him Gail and I could be in Paris, he would call a dinner and offer a wine theme. I think other members did bring wines but in the email threads that negotiated the dinners, that was never discussed. It is certainly the case that all the accounts of the dinners were his and if you couldn't read the idiomatic French, you did miss wonderful narratives. As Cole said in his tribute after his death, PAB had a cheerfully pugnacious way of expressing his opinions. Somehow, online, the cheerfulness was not always as evident to everyone, though.
 
There was no arrangement other than inside his head. He created the hierarchy all by himself. He modeled himself (as I recall) on the Communist party, where the post of "General Secretary" was assumed by the true power and the President was a figurehead.

A bit of personal history: I was travelling to Paris 10+ years ago and having seen his posts I contacted pab to try to have a dinner. He scheduled a TGJP for my free night and it was wonderful. My travel to Paris varied for a while but became more regular around 6 or 7 years ago, and each visit we would work the schedule (and the menu and the wines) for the next one.

I was able to go shopping with M-S for poultry and watch the preparation of insanely complex dishes. pab and M-S loved Japan and all things Japanese and we had some lovely Japanese meals in Paris.

My own rise to tyrant was due to the failure of my predecessor (LBS, Le Bon Sauveur) to produce some bottles of riesling after any numbers of requests for a riesling dinner. LBS was sent to the salt mines and I became LBT. Sentence to the mines was always a threat for someone who behaved poorly although rehabilitation was possible. My ability to source white truffles allowed my reign to continue.

I brought a number of friends to the TGJP and pab and crew were always quite welcoming.
 
originally posted by Cole Kendall:
There was no arrangement other than inside his head. He created the hierarchy all by himself. He modeled himself (as I recall) on the Communist party, where the post of "General Secretary" was assumed by the true power and the President was a figurehead.
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A sensible model with much to recommend it.
 
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