Because I live in Philly and a Brunello offline without my wealth of knowledge would be sadly lacking. (just kidding)

Seriously though, just take the train down. Once you get off the LIRR at Penn Station, it's only an hour and fifteen minutes on the Acela.

So are you in???

So I'm brining the 1997 Lisini Ugolaia and maybe a Fuligni or a Costanti or something else classy along those lines, but the 1997 Lisini Ugolaia is definitely in. While this might be jumping the gun a little, I'm already excited.

Plus, if we keep it at 6 people, we'll have some very excellent restaurant options.

quote:

So I'm brining the 1997 Lisini Ugolaia and maybe a Fuligni or a Costanti or something else classy along those lines, but the 1997 Lisini Ugolaia is definitely in. While this might be jumping the gun a little, I'm already excited.

Plus, if we keep it at 6 people, we'll have some very excellent restaurant options.

Good God, Daniel! If you start whipping Riservas out your gazoo 3 months before we get together, we'll be lucky to keep this to 60, much less 6! I'll see your Ugolaia with a Fuligni Riserva, and raise you a....... Oh, sorry. I got carried away. But the Fuligni Riserva is in. Let's keep this to a reasonable number (8-10) so we can get good pours for this occasion. Is it January yet? Hey wine + art, this one may be worth flying in for!! What say you, Texan??

PH

Yes. Let's limit it to 8, but if Hunter doesn't want to come and we have 6, all the better. I hate small pours.

Dan likes small groups I see.

No offense taken

We'd love to have you, Hunter. It's only 75 minutes from Penn Station...

Daniel,

As i mentioned to you on Sunday, i would love to join you. Please add me to the list.

Joshua

Finalized Date: January 14, 2006

Current List of Attendees:

Daniel Fulton (+significant other)
Purple Haze
Futronic
MWagner (+wife)
Joshua Pollak

We have 7, and agreed to limit it to 8 for decent pours, which leaves room for one more.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Daniel Fulton,

Come on Nick!!! All the Brunello lovers together... I'll bring my last '95 Fuligni as promised. We can set something up... we'll spend the night in Philly. So we can work something out... picking you up from the train, etc.

As they say, "Beggars can't be choosers"... but if this happened to occur sometime in late December, I'll be back in Philly and would love to join you. But I know that's a difficult time to get folks together.

Are 90's allowed? Or just 97's?

Based on my recent experience with my 1997 Pian delle Vigne, maybe we should open this up to multiple vintages? Especially if BHV has some 1990 juice to bring! I can still taste that 1990 Costanti Riserva from our last Brunello offline!!

PH

I'd drink some 90's, but if we're gonna call it a 1997 Brunello offline, we need 1997s too.
Dan

How about everyone brings a 1997, and then another bottle from another year, older or younger. Cabs and hotel rooms a requirement for all!!

PH

Sounds fun. But just so I'm not accused of "bait and switch" tactics, I'm only in the area plus or minus 5-days from 12/25, or so.

I'm certainly not suggesting that the dates be moved to accomodate me, I just wouldn't want to get everyone thinking I'm bringing a '90 Brunello and then no-show. That said, I'd be delighted to join in if the late December timing materializes.

Can we firm up the date, please? I'd like to start looking into flights.

I would prefer the January 14th date initally laid out, since December is impossible for me.

BH - come out in January anyway! It would be nice to see you and your wife again.

futronic,

January is a possibility, but no promises at this point. It would be fun to see you and others again as well. Problem is, I'm traveling so much these days that when I get "home" it too feels like I'm on the road. But after we're finished pouring our wines in Oregon during the Thanksgiving wine-weekend, and I get back to Minneapolis, I'll have a better sense of where we'll go for January.

Meanwhile, I concur that the Philly-Brunello date should get finalized, and I'd very much suggest that it NOT be impacted by me. And I agree, most folks will likely prefer the January date.

(That said, if there are any folks in the Philly area that are available and interested during the December dates, I'd be happy to bring out the 2002, 2003, and 2004 Le Cadeau PNs and we could do a separate small dinner... just a thought).

As far as I know, the January 14 date was finalized.

Current List of Attendees:

Daniel Fulton (+significant other)
Purple Haze
Futronic
MWagner (+wife)
Joshua Pollak

Hi guys,

After conferring with Josh I booked us at Overtures, for 7pm on Saturday, January 14.

Overtures is a BYO, somewhat French, and has more Brunello friendly food than any of the "Italian" restaurants in Philly. They specialize in rack of lamb and have an amazing veal tenderloin.

If anyone else has suggestions, I'd be happy to entertain them, but Overtures seems like the best bet.

The reservation is for 8, and the restaurant informed me that is the largest party they can accommodate.

Dan

Confirming for one. Another attendee possible, but not yet confirmed. Looking forward to seeing the Brunello gang again. Are we nuts to be cracking 1997 Riservas, Daniel?

PH

PH,

While we might be nuts in general, I don't think it's nuts to open the 1997 Riservas. As I've mentioned before, I'm not convinced these wines will improve at all with additional age, and I'm fairly confident at least some of them will crash if they haven't all ready. I think some of the wines that are in a "dumb phase" how are undoubtedly over the hill.

A few months ago I had the 1997 Biondi Santi, an estate which I regard very highly, and their 1997 Brunello was palatable, but considering the prestige of the wine and the supposed quality of the vintage, one could easily consider that wine a disaster--little complexity, deficient in structure, and generally just not a good wine.

As you’ve heard me say plenty before, I think these wines will be more charming now than they will 5 or 10 years from now. The vast majority of them don't have the acidity necessary for long term aging, and they're already 8 year old wines.

1997 (and 2003) were freakish vintages. While they might be appealing young, they almost certainly aren't wines to age like the 1995s or 1999s are.

Parker has perhaps more than anyone else made the case for the age-worthiness of wines from unusually ripe vintages, e.g., Bordeaux in 1982 and 2000, and yet Parker himself has been highly critical of the hype surrounding the 1997 vintage in Tuscany.

I hope that I'm wrong and that these are wonderful, age-worthy wines that will blossom with time; however, I don't think that this will be the case. Anyway, tasting all these wines side by side should be very interesting, and I'm really looking forward to it.

Dan

quote:

As I've mentioned before, I'm not convinced these wines will improve at all with additional age, and I'm fairly confident at least some of them will crash if they haven't all ready. I think some of the wines that are in a "dumb phase" how are undoubtedly over the hill.

I am probably the only other person on the board that has had similar concerns and I have posted them before.

There are too many producers that made different quality and styles to praise or condemn the entire vintage. Some will improve, many will not and are at least in prime window now.

I have said that most of these wines need to be tasted now to evaluate them. Some people here are like "I'm holding all of my brunello for 5 more years at least". You can't do that with every producer and some of these people have not even tried it yet! I have had stars and duds from 97.

Blindly holding cases until "2009" or whatever, is a bad move and like Dan said, you will certainly miss the peak of many of them and it is an "expensive miss"

This ain't 2000 Bordeaux folks. Drink some, hold some.

Enjoy!

I'm still going to preach about the longevity of the '97s. This weekend in Las Vegas, we had three Brunellos at our table - the Costanti, Frescobaldi Castelgiocondo, and the Antinori Pian della Vigne.

Let's just say they all need a more time. The Costanti blossomed into something gorgeous on the second day. I brought two bottles to dinner and the notes were pretty similar.

Anyway, I'm in regardless. I just think that maybe Brunello from vintages other than '97 might want to be considered.

We're in. The only Brunello's I have from 1997 are my Fuligni Riserva. If PH is bringing them, I'll have to buy some others.

I still have that '95 Fuligni, but I brought that last year, and don't want to be "taboo" by bringing it again. Plus, I said I'd wait for all the Brunello lovers to be together... Hunter included. (You can make it )

I am far from expert in this area, but my recent experience with the 1997 Pian delle Vigne echoes that of futronic. Not ready, but showing incredibly better on day two.

mwagner7700 - I have other 1997's, so don't feel the need to go out and buy wine.

PH