at Capital Grille at Pointe Orlando
April 2, 2016 at 6pm 
We’ve done many BV tastings over the years, and they’ve always contained some impressive wines, which were once unquestionably the group’s favorites. Now, with nothing very interesting made since the early 80s, some of them are, sadly, getting tired. So for one last hurrah, here is by far the deepest tasting we’ve ever done. This event includes many of the greatest vintages, and stretches back nearly to the beginning of the wine in 1936.
Over the years our impression was that they lost the formula in the 80s, and boy was this confirmed! We tasted the wines in reverse order of age, and the initial flights were absolutely awful—tight, unyielding, and often downright stinky. Despite all the wine being in perfect condition these were absolutely undrinkable.
Then, suddenly, we got to the 70s, and the flights became wonderful—Ron enthused that it was some of the best BV he ever tasted, and he would seek out the 70, 75, 76 and 77 in addition to the already popular 68.
Two wines out of the 27 were corked, which isn’t too bad for the era. But sadly they were both obviously great wines that couldn’t be fully appreciated even though some of the corkiness blew off for a while. One was the classic 68, and the other was the 52.
The most popular wines of the night were the 1975, 1970, and 1960, with victory going to the 1960.
The most controversial wine of the night was the 1942, which was completely unlike the wines of the 50s, 60s and 70s. It had bacon and wax in the nose, developed some herbs, and seemed very young. There was nothing fake about this bottle—it had an appropriate fill and a problematic and definitely 70-year-old cork. But clearly Andre Tchelistcheff put some different grapes into this fascinating wine!
My point scores are in the table below:
The Wines
| Vintage | Wine |
Points |
Cost |
| 1942 | BV Cabernet Sauvignon Georges de Latour Private Reserve | 94 pts | 565 |
| 1952 | BV Cabernet Sauvignon Georges de Latour Private Reserve | 92? pts | 500 |
| 1960 | BV Cabernet Sauvignon Georges de Latour Private Reserve | 96 pts | 225 |
| 1964 | BV Cabernet Sauvignon Georges de Latour Private Reserve | 85 pts | 135 |
| 1965 | BV Cabernet Sauvignon Georges de Latour Private Reserve | 83 pts | 191 |
| 1968 | BV Cabernet Sauvignon Georges de Latour Private Reserve | 95? pts | 254 |
| 1970 | BV Cabernet Sauvignon Georges de Latour Private Reserve | 93 pts | 150 |
| 1971 | BV Cabernet Sauvignon Georges de Latour Private Reserve | 85 pts | 68 |
| 1973 | BV Cabernet Sauvignon Georges de Latour Private Reserve | 87 pts | 100 |
| 1974 | BV Cabernet Sauvignon Georges de Latour Private Reserve | 90 pts | 104 |
| 1975 | BV Cabernet Sauvignon Georges de Latour Private Reserve | 91 pts | 81 |
| 1976 | BV Cabernet Sauvignon Georges de Latour Private Reserve | 92 pts | 131 |
| 1977 | BV Cabernet Sauvignon Georges de Latour Private Reserve | 91 pts | 92 |
| 1978 | BV Cabernet Sauvignon Georges de Latour Private Reserve | 88 pts | John |
| 1979 | BV Cabernet Sauvignon Georges de Latour Private Reserve | 90 pts | 53 |
| 1980 | BV Cabernet Sauvignon Georges de Latour Private Reserve | 87 pts | 54 |
| 1981 | BV Cabernet Sauvignon Georges de Latour Private Reserve | 83 pts | 60 |
| 1982 | BV Cabernet Sauvignon Georges de Latour Private Reserve | 87 pts | 49 |
| 1983 | BV Cabernet Sauvignon Georges de Latour Private Reserve | 77 pts | 45 |
| 1984 | BV Cabernet Sauvignon Georges de Latour Private Reserve | 82 pts | 78 |
| 1986 | BV Cabernet Sauvignon Georges de Latour Private Reserve | 80 pts | 53 |
| 1987 | BV Cabernet Sauvignon Georges de Latour Private Reserve | 79 pts | 63 |
| 1988 | BV Cabernet Sauvignon Georges de Latour Private Reserve | 81 pts | 60 |
| 1990 | BV Cabernet Sauvignon Georges de Latour Private Reserve | 80 pts | 48 |
| 1991 | BV Cabernet Sauvignon Georges de Latour Private Reserve | 81 pts | 76 |
| 2005 | BV Cabernet Sauvignon Georges de Latour Private Reserve | 85 pts | Dick |
| 2006 | BV Cabernet Sauvignon Georges de Latour Private Reserve | 85 pts | 64 |
| 3300 |
Acquisitions
| I’m going to sell the remaining three bottles of 1937 Vosne-Romanée, as we’ve had the wine a couple of times and it’s not that interesting. |
| 1962 Ch. Margaux | 414 |
| 1962 Ch. Lafita Rothschild | 356 |
| Total | 770 |
Upcoming Events
| Syndicate | July 16 |
| Syndicate | November 12 |
Treasurer’s Report
| Previous Balance | -3711 |
| Dues Payable | 5000 |
| Purchases | -770 |
| Sales | ? |
| Dinner | -1744 |
| Balance | -1225 |
Please bring your dues of $1000 per couple to the event.