This weekend was an exception. To fly from Seattle to Atlanta requires two flights and a bunch of time, but this annual event that always includes at least one first growth of Claret, has become a staple on my calendar. This year I took part in a pre-weekend offline with a grand mix of deep flights with outstanding contributions that will be hard for me to top the rest of this year.
Then on Sat. / Sun. we tasted through an extraordinary lineup of old and young flights of Leoville Las Cases on Saturday, followed by an incredible Ch. Latour tasting back to 1964, with every major outstanding vintage to follow in a couple of flights of six. All bottles were purchased on release, so as inexpensively as $5 per bottle back in the day. I once was fortunate to do a "complete" vertical of 20 vintages of Ch. Latour back to 1959 that rocked my world back in the day. I never forgot that one. This comes many years later and again reminded me why Latour is my favorite of all first growth, and for my tastes HB in 2nd place.
During dinners that followed some pretty great bottles of Burgundy too, and each night I opened a 40 year old Tawny Port, (Sandeman/Noval) so that everyone had a few ounces, but this crowd has few serious Port enthusiasts. They are focused on Burg/Bdx and have crazy deep cellars. But Bordeaux was the focus this past weekend and I am now sated and will head home this afternoon, to continue working on the next newsletter.
The next three weekends include other wine events away from home. Next weekend, I will bring the family with me. In addition to my annual March Magnum Marathon event in Oregon, two couples that are coming for May's Madeirathon Tour just happen to live one mile from where I will be and invited my family to dinner to meet them. The world of wine creates so many friendships. I just wish that Europe was not so far away.
