Fifty in France with Friends and Family

[Stephen_Williams]

@Don Cornwell

@Stephen Williams

Those bottles consumed at restaurants, in all cases from their lists rather than BYO, which is pretty rare in France, have been marked as such. There are some great restaurant wine lists near my house, especially Oustalet in Gigondas and La Beaugraviere in Mondragon.

Of the others, a lot were bought on release in either France or the U.K. And some were sourced specifically for my 50th over the previous few years.

The more local wines came straight from the Domaines

Some great notes. I agree on the impressive 2004s from PYCM, but you could say the same about his 2005s, 2007s and 2008s as well.

By the way, aren’t you the same Stephen Williams who owns Antique Wine Company in London? Your signature doesn’t say ITB, but I seem to recall that the owner of AWC has a home in France too.

Absolutely not ! Sadly we are often mixed up, which has created problems in the past until I explain otherwise.

[Stephen_Williams]

On the PYCM 05s, 07s and 08s I haven’t had a broad enough range yet to judge. For some reason I went very long the 04s and have easy access to them at my house in France, vs the younger years that are mostly in Bond.

I also have very high hopes for his 2010s. And his 06s are some of the best of that year that I’ve tried (although this Summer’s BM was a bit chubby).

In fact, I’d be hard pushed to name a poor year for the domaine