DLroads

I assume that at some point, someone would also post the tasting notes :-)

dhammer53

Notes? You want notes? @:-) This year was a tough year for note taking (for me). 22 people with 24 bottles. The wine kept flowing. I was up and down like a yo-yo, even with help from EastBay1k and calcifer.

mjm makes fun of me for the way I write notes. mjm says she can interpret them. I took a few brief notes, and eventually lost track of what I was drinking; so notes wouldn't be accurate.

Here goes:

NV J Lasalle was a nice starter Champagne. A little flat, with some fruit showing.
2006 Taittinger Comtes was a nice wine. I'm glad 3 of us went in on this.
2015 Kuentz was dry, some say sweet, with a little oak. This was a nice wine that I enjoyed.
2012 Schloss had a fruit nose - apricot
2015 Donnhoff - no notes
2014 A Christmann GG - no notes

Reds
2011 Myriad - yum.
2009 Bedrock was very nice
2001 Katnook was yummy.
1985 BV was musty on opening, but tasted just ok. After a 60 minute decant, the smell and taste were both musty.
2005 Prager Port was smooth. cordelli turned me onto them 10+ years ago. HPN-HRL brought this.
Other reds > no notes.

Up thread, where the wines are listed, monitor did a switch and brought something else (not noted).
stockmanjr was a last minute addition. His wines aren't listed.

It's not a perfect world, but we all managed. There were 6 new faces at dinner, and 5 of them sat at the same table. viridianne, FlyerStef, and plainsman seemed to have an enjoyable time. It was nice meeting them. It was nice hanging out with the regulars, and nice to see violist make a return appearance.

As long as the food continues to be good, and the price is fair, we'll be back at North Square next year. Time to start thinking about a theme.

Best.
Dan

I don't have any comments written for anything else, so we'd appreciate your notes. I'd also appreciate filling in on what I wrote above.

My WOTN (Wine of the Night) was the 30 or so year old (and $12.99 half bottle) Yalumba Muscat Dessert wine from Australia. This was a dark amber color that had a 60+ second finish. It was oh so good. By the way, back in those days, I would spend under $10 a bottle. So $12.99 for a half was expensive.

I appreciate the help offered going forward in 2020. It was suggested that the person that brings the wine do the pouring. I think that's a genius idea.
The other idea is to re-visit WineDo11 (2018), where we had 12 for dinner.

While I liked the R&R theme, I think we needed more starter whites.

Eastbay1K

A thought that just entered my fragile little mind ...

Unusual / atypical varietals, and blends.

Your bottle can't say "Chardonnay" or "Sauvignon Blanc" or "Cabernet Sauvignon" or "Pinot Noir" or "Syrah," etc as a single varietal. (There can be a short exclusion list). Of course, the blend can have the "exclusions" in it. Bubbles and sweeties the exception to the restrictions.

(S)he who brings the wine shall serve the wine. The cruise director (Miss Jule "dhammer53" McCoy) will simply whip you when it is time, probably 2 at a time.

My 2¢ for a Sunday morning.

KathyWdrf

Some blends have a very long heritage -- for example, GSM (Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre), a blend from the Cotes-du-Rhone/Chateauneuf-du-Pape region that goes back at least several centuries. One of the U.S. producers of this style blend is Williamson Wines in Healdsburg; they call it "Enchant Trinity" [vintage year] Red Wine Dry Creek Valley Sonoma County.

BOB W

I will take the blame for that suggestion, but I think it is a good idea. You choose the wine....tell us a little about it.

Dan, thanks for another night of great food, good wines and GREAT friends!

Viridianne

owlwoman

A great time, thank you Dan again for organizing (and the ride), looks like some fun ideas for next year and I'd be happy to assist in pouring the wines!

dhammer53

Truth be told, back in the day I had a crush on her.

I appreciate the BOB W ideas mentioned above. He/She who brings the wine, pours the wine. This idea of me getting up and down to pour the wines like a yo-yo is tiring. That's just one issue, and it's been solved. The other issue is that the wine can't be poured fast enough to keep up with the meal. WineDo isn't a 5 hour multi course event. There's always wine that hasn't been poured well after the last bite has been eaten. That's the bigger issue.

This year we had multiples of 2 people going in on a wine. In one case, 3 went in on a bottle.

I see a couple of ways to address this:

1. Going in on a wine become mandatory next year. 24 people = 12 bottles. No exceptions. Details have to be hashed out. For those that attended last year, we had 12 people, and we tasted wine in flights. This was enjoyable. We could sit and enjoy a wine, rather than drinking or spitting, then getting the next glass. I wouldn't necessarily call drinking and spitting fun.

2. For WineDo 11, we had 12 attendees and called it a day. If you were there, you enjoyed dinner. This isn't meant to sound harsh, so I hope this is read in the spirit (no pun intended) offered.

3. Feel free to put in your advice. Brainstorming always yields good ideas.
Dan

Eastbay1K

1. Going in on a wine become mandatory next year. 24 people = 12 bottles. No exceptions. Details have to be hashed out. For those that attended last year, we had 12 people, and we tasted wine in flights. This was enjoyable. We could sit and enjoy a wine, rather than drinking or spitting, then getting the next glass. I wouldn't necessarily call drinking and spitting fun.

A no go for me. It means exclusion of everything under $70/bottle, and gets a little too precious, and also leaves out a world of excellent wine, and would have excluded almost if not everything I've contributed over the past near-decade. I like trying 20-ish things. 12 bottles of wine also means a total of 2 generous glasses per person, total, for 3+ hours (including any starting bubbles and ending dessert). Not enough. People who don't want something can simply pass. We don't end up with a lot of excess wine. You may also find that if you're sitting (and not getting up to do all the pouring) that your "sitting and enjoying" time will be more "sitting and enjoying."

2. For WineDo 11, we had 12 attendees and called it a day. If you were there, you enjoyed dinner. This isn't meant to sound harsh, so I hope this is read in the spirit (no pun intended) offered.

It is nice to see "up to 23" other attendees, most of whom I see annually, or less frequently. 12 is more like a private dinner party. If only 12 want to come, that is one thing.

3. Feel free to put in your advice. Brainstorming always yields good ideas.

You asked for my 2¢. You got 3¢. Might I suggest (and there might be just a touch of room on the tables) that we all get 4 wine glasses each to start. This permits a lot more wine to be sampled during food time. If, for instance, 4 Bandol Rouges were to be poured within a short time of each other, I could compare and contrast all of them with my lamb chops. Another suggestion is to have a few commitments for pre-departure bubbles. The bubbles selection was sparse this year, and during "meet / greet / seat" time, 24 people can easily down 3 or 4 bottles without actually consuming very much. It also provides better opportunity for "going in on a bottle" with someone. IM(nsh)O, a $70+ bottle of bubbles (as opposed to 2 $35s) is going to be much more satisfying in comparison to many $70+ bottles of still wine.

Keep it simple.

I think we're up to 5¢ now.

thewayofthefuture

Generally agree with Eastbay's comments. I enjoy seeing the regulars every year and would hate for anyone to be forced to miss out because we cut the attendee limit in half.

Also agree on PDB and keeping us somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 wines total - I seem to remember at least some point years past we had a bottle or two of bubbles open while people were standing, chatting, and deciding on a table. This would allow us to jump straight into whites with our first course and ready for reds by the time the steaks (or salads ) arrive. I do remember a couple of times when we had a few unfinished bottles at the end of the night, but it never seemed like there was any trouble finding a good home for them.

Glad to pour my own bottle, and more than happy to pour for others who would prefer to remain seated if I'm able to snag an aisle seat.

Flying Machine

Eastbay1K

The simple fact is that this isn't a wine dinner with a bunch of experts. It is an FT event and isn't a "wine event" in the sense you're professionally experienced. Besides, people are eating various things off the menu, from fish to steak for their main courses. There are plenty of opportunities for formally paired dining. This isn't one of them, and if it turns into one, it won't likely be on my event list.

Flying Machine

Eastbay1K

mjm

Lots and lots of wine dinners in my daily life and a few rules of thumb have evolved

1. 8 people maximum should share a bottle of wine if you intend to enjoy the wine over more than a span of 5 minutes. If there more people that wish to drink the same wine, have two bottles of it.
2. Let the staff pour the wine if they are willing to do so, otherwise explain to the people at your table that 7 other people will be pouring a taste so be sure to take approx. 1/8 and not more. Put the wine in the middle of the table and open one bottle at a time pausing fpr the person who brought it to talk about it.
3. The number of people attending is irrelevant if #1 above is followed.
4. Tables setup to accommodate up to 8 people makes the entire process easier. After about the 3rd or 4th bottle people will get up and wander and schmooze and sample anyway.
5. Bring two bottles. Wine always runs out.
6. The wine brought should be special to the person bringing it. Sharing the cost detracts from that and makes it about a dollar value and a quantity provided. The quality or contents of the bottle should be the focus. Nobody is incapable of going to a wine shop, describing a price and a style or them and getting great advice.