I wake up to join the rest of the TWA team for breakfast, although I appear to be the only one succumbing to the delights of eggs over easy at the Marriot (I guess the others are swotting up on TWA scores, just in case we are tested.) I walk to a nearby restaurant for the meeting, take a pew next to David Schildknecht and we spend the day discussing matters of the day…you know…world domination…Neil Young…whether to tweak the shade of the Wine Advocate…Web 8.0…should we change to the 703.9-point system…why have N-Dubz not been awarded Album of the Month…should we include English ale reviews…can we help with the clearup in the Gulf of Mexico etc…etc.
Kevin Zraly and Robert Parker. They know a bit about wine.
As usual, the lunch is extended for twice its allocated hour because at the end of the day, you are not going to hurry a 1968 Taurasi. The liquid lunch does not seem to impede the afternoon session with some interesting Powerpoint presentations (mine is read straight from the laptop…no time to learn Powerpoint.)
In the evening, dinner in nearby Charleston restaurant, whose culinary fare is top class. David is looking very dapper, a style that I can only describe as “New Orleon episcopal pimp”. Bob holds court of course, flanked by Kevin Zraly who has a very appealing, sardonic sense of humour and a judicious beard. When Bob asks him to list the famous stars who frequented “Windows of the World”, Kevin peels off a jaw-dropping who’s who of the latter 20th century, which makes me wish I was a 1970s popstar.
The wines are again pillaged from Bob’s cellar, including a Cheval Blanc 2000, Climens 1988, a couple of Burgs, La Mission 1983 and others. In fact, he is too generous and raffles off the unopened magnums. We writers are suspicious that two members of the technical team at the end of the table win, but nobody calls for a recount.
We do not stay out too late, so we return to the hotel where Bob reads us all a bedtime story (David’s epic Lucien de Moine reviews…just the Village Crus) before retiring to Bedfordshire.
Tomorrow: DC.
Filed under: Uncategorized, usa Tagged: | baltimore, charleston, cheval blanc 2000, climens 1988, david schildknecht, kevin zraly, la mission haut-brion 1983, robert parker, the wine advocate
I ate in the Charleston several times when I was working in Baltimore a few summers ago. And frequented Bin 63 the wine shop a few doors away.
My Scottish colleague and I challenged the Charleston sommelier once as we couldn’t name all the distilleries on Islay. She could – but then she did have all her books behind the scenes to help her.
The restaurant is wonderful.