Ronnie and I had the distinct pleasure of meeting up with Emilio and mrs. Emilio this evening…and what a fun evening it was! Some brief comments on the wines (no notes were taken)…

Fritz Haag 2002 Brauneberger Juffer Riesling Kabinett Trocken (MSR) - AP 11; very light in colour, but an all round typical Rieling – fresh, crisp, spritzy, flint…nice.

Cuilleron 2001 “Les Chaillets VV” (Condrieu) – A bit too much (French) oak in this wine, and quite possibly a bit too old. However, as this warmed up, it displayed a lovely floral nose – which made the body seem all that much more flabby. The finish is a bit better, though. Good wine for sure; I’d love to try a ’03.

P+S 2000 Chryseia (Douro) – big and unforgiving. WS rated this 87 points: I disagree. This needs time in the cellar. An expectional Douro red!

Cobos 2002 Marchiori Vineyard Malbec (Mendoza) – Wow! Smooth structure, lovely red fruit flavours, silken finish…superlative wine. Yum!

Quarles Harris 1977 VP – Decanted 8 hours before serving. Fully mature; smooth tannins, sweet fruit, well integrated…a nice glass of VP! How nice? The decanter was empty in 30 minutes – yes, a tasty Port!

Toro Albala 1971 Gran Reserva PX (Montilla Moriles) – Lovely! It could do with a bit more acidity, but a good PX nonetheless. Did we really drank a whole 750? Yes, we did….

Yet another superb offline – if only I didn’t have to work tomorrow…

I'll blame the PX for me having a hard time getting out of bed this morning....

It was a great evening, I had a lot of fun! Very nice to meet mr. & mrs. Emilio, and again, you did a superb job on the cooking Stevie!

Emilio, I sure hope you didn't get lost on the way back to the hotel...

Ronnie, how is the Chryseia drinking tonight?
Just finished the last glass of the Malbec: great stuff, and especially the nose had opened up a lot more. Good stuff!

Wish I had been there to join you guys. The Cobos is arguably the best malbec on the planet. BTW it is made in very small quantities. Thanks for the notes. The Cobos is difficult to find in the USA. If you can find it is about $60. Did you find this in the Netherlands?

IW

Isn't it time you visited The Netherlands again, IW?

Emilio was so kind as to bring the Cobos - and indeed I have nver tasted a South American wine that was this impressive - a magnificant wine for sure! It will be interesting to compare it with the Clos Apalta '00 he left as a gift...

I'll drink the remaining bit of the Chryseia tonight. Didn't feel much like drining alcohol yesterday....

Thanks for the notes, sounds wonderful. Happy to hear the Emilios made it safely and we look forward to their return to South Florida.

Emilio is quite the gift giver. After recently hosting MLV and I for dinner, he sent us home with a Neal Zin.

I second that, JC. Emilio is quite generous.

Emilio (and don't forget mrs. Emilio!) are not only generous - they are also great company to chat and drink with: I hope I get to meet them again soon!

As I see that Emilio is online right now: your thoughts please! Oh, and which restaurant did you go for on Monday? How was Brugge?

Just got back and we had a wonderful trip. After Amsterdam we made our way to Brugge, Brussels, and Paris and then back to Florida

I appreciate all the nice comments from everyone and I think it should be said that Stevie and Ronnie were the generous ones. Stevie was kind enough to invite us over to his home and cook us a wonderful meal, including lamb, aspargus, potatoes au gratin and last but surely not least, a really great cheese souffle that we had before the meal. Ronnie also brought two tapenades for an appetizer that were very tasty and irrestible. Along with all the wine Ronnie and Stevie opened for us they went way above and beyond for us and we really appreciate it! Stevie and Ronnie were great company and we had so much fun the time absolutely flew by. We look forward to doing it again sometime and when you guys come to South Florida sometime we would very happy to return the favor!

As far as the wines, I don't have a lot to add to what Stevie wrote as his descriptions are right on the mark. I agree that the P+S Chryseia 2000 is very underated. It will definitely improve with more cellar time but is clearly a 90+ point wine even now. The '77 VP was a beautiful wine, drinking absolutely perfectly.

Ronnie, we did make it straight back to our hotel, thanks to you!

Thank you again to both of you for making it such a fun time, we look forward to seeing you again!

Stevie, just noticed you posted before I did. On Monday since we couldn't get into De Kas we called the two places you recommended but they were both closed. So we took one of your other recommendations and went to an Indonesian place for rijsttafel. That was quite an experience, we really enjoyed it. Also stayed in Amsterdam until afternoon on Tuesday so that we could go to De Kas for lunch. What a great place!

Brugge was beautiful, we did some biking and a lot of beer tasting! (not at the same time of course )

- you make me blush! Good to hear you enjoy both the trip and the offline!

- indeed!
I'm glad you enjoyed De Kas, it's still one of my favorite restaurants. It seems like you did a good job on beer tasting! Which ones did you like best?

If I remember right, my favorite was Straffe Hendrick (sp?) also Kwak and De Koninck were excellent although we really didn't have any bad beers. The only one I didn't care for was Lambic but it wasn't really like beer, more like champagne but much sweeter. My wife liked it but it just wasn't to my liking.

Ah! Lambic - or Geuze: the Burgundy of Beer! No yeast added to the "most", only those floating in the air will ferment the beer. If terroir is of influence in beer: this is it.
Often quite feeble and acidic, but the best ones really can be the La Tache of beers! It is an acquired taste, though (as is Burgundy)...

Straffe Hendrik is a very good beer indeed. I normally don't really care for gueze as well (just like I don't care for burgundy - so that comparison is completely right stevie!)

Glad to hear that the QH is drinking well now, it might be our Christmas port.

Not sure that the fact that you finished it in a half hour is any recommendation though, don't you almost always finish your ports as fast as that?

Stevie & Ronnie,

You didn't serve the smelly cheeses, I hope?

bman - you have a point...
It would be a good VP to have at Christmas - it is drinking like a dream!

NDD - just a few...