On October 3rd, 2009, Icon Wines partners lined-up early in the morning to be one of the first to purchase 2006 Bordeaux wines at the Westwood Centre BCLDB store. This was our first Bordeaux release purchase and it was a learning experience as we made a couple of rookie mistakes, but it all worked out in the end.
Arriving at 8:00 am Saturday morning, a full 1.5 hours before the doors were to open at 9:30 am at the Port Coquitlam store; we figured we had over done it due to the fact that there was no visible line. Therefore, we decided to go have a leisurely breakfast at the DeDutch restaurant in the adjoining plaza and go over our strategy for the day.
Our strategy was simple: focus on the wine we feel is the star of the vintage, Chateau Pontet-Canet (Pauillac, $129, 94pts WA), and then pick a few more wines with good points-to-price ratio for our cellar and to be used in future Icon Wine events.
After finishing breakfast around 9 am we decided to go line-up anyway and mingle with the small crowd that was beginning to form. Waiting at the door a BCLDB employee popped their head out to ask if we had already placed a “bottle order” earlier in the morning. Having no idea what he was referring to we were intrigued to learn that the store had been taking order forms for the hot 2006 wines since 5:30 am that morning. Quizzing him on what was left, we discovered that they were already out of the Pontet-Canet.
HC decided to go try the other PoCo BCLDB store (Nicola Station) to try and get the coveted Pontet-Canet and I would stay in line at Westwood to look looking for the points-to-price purchases. I picked-up:
Chateau Marsau (Cotes de Francs) $25 – 88pts WA
Chateau De Fonbel (Saint-Emilion) $29.00 – 89pts WA
Chateau Pavie Macqui (Saint-Emilion) $99.00 – 92+pts WA
Chateau Rolland-Maillet (Saint-Emilion) $29.00 - 90pts WS
As it turned out, the Nicola Station BCLDB had little to no crowd and no pre-orders snatching up the 2006 favourites. HC picked up the Pontet-Canet and returned to meet me at the Westwood store to complete our order. In the end we got the wines we wanted and learned what to do better next time around. Of course, the jury is still out on the purportedly weak 2007 vintage. We’ll do our research throughout the year and make up our minds if their will be a 2007 purchase or not. - LC
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