A Vintage Dinner Club

For the time being, this is going to be an abbreviated posting. I'm somewhat pressed for time and this entry is going to be one that will take both time and thought. Add, to that, the fact that I still have to make arrangements to get a more extensive array of photos since Boo's camera battery ran out of juice five shots into the evening.

I did, in the mean time, however, want to at least add the wines from this big night to The List. It's a grand assortment - unlike almost any evening I think I've had the pleasure of participating in.

It all started with Tyrant sending out a request for wines to be brought to the next instalment of our Dinner Club. It was his turn to host - but all he asked of the four couples joining in was two Champagnes and two "interesting French whites." Knowing that four bottles wouldn't suffice with this crowd, he confided that he had the reds covered. What we didn't know was that he was using our dinner as an opportunity to open a number of his old Bordeaux bottles that were starting to hit their "best before" dates.

Lucky us.

I'll hopefully get some pictures and expand on the evening shortly, but suffice it to say that Tyrant was channelling his "inner Julia Child" for the faithful. And the wines lived up to the occasion.

416. NV Pierre Gimonnet & Fils Brut Cuis 1er Cru (AOC Champagne - France)

417. NV Duval-Leroy Brut - Collection Paris (AOC Champagne - France)

418. 2005 Domaine Weinbach Reserve Muscat (AOC Alsace - France)

419. 2007 Domaine Christian Moreau - Cuvee Buy Moreau (AOC Chablis 1er Cru Vaillon - France)

420. 1982 Chateau Ducru-Beaucaillon (AOC St. Julien - France)

421. 1982 Chateau Gruaud Larose Grand Cru Classe (AOC St. Julien - France)

422. 1986 Chateau Gruaud Larose Grand Cru Classe (AOC St. Julien - France)

423. 1986 Chateau Cos d'Estournel Grand Cru Classe (AOC St. Estephe - France)

424. 1977 Dow's Silver Jubilee Vintage Port (Portugal)

Considering that the Canucks were playing Game 2 of their playoff series with LA, Boo and I should have been simply sipping away on a bottle of LaFrenz. I think even die-hard Canuck fans would have a difficult time passing up this line-up though. I do have to admit that one of the other guests, Axel, and I had to excuse ourselves from the table on a number of occasions to "go to the bathroom." The phrase didn't fool anyone, but it was code for "I'm going to go and check on the score" since, coincidentally, you had to pass the television room while headed to a bathroom.

The Canucks lost in overtime, but our team certainly won with this evening. For now, I'll simply say that Julia would have been proud of Tyrant. And I got to add some pretty stellar wines to The List - although you can see just how exhausting all this hard work is on an old-timer like me.