OC Rhys Tasting/Dinner--Oct 11th, 4PM--FINAL DETAILS posted

Seeing that August didn’t work out, let’s re-do this idea and calendar it for a date that will be amenable so we can fill a table here at my house and we can work through some Rhys liquid history. If you would be interested in attending this dinner, simply post a reply, RSVP for 10 chairs:

October, 11th, Saturday

One final constraint I want to lead with now, to set expectations. There are a # of local WBers who have told me that they want to do this Rhys dinner and that we have enough of you out there with Rhys in your cellars. This leads me to the belief that we should suspend the “+1” chairs for this event and do single chairs only, driving to the table as many cork dorks as we can. This helps foster more pure wine talk, de-lever the costs per person, etc.

As to the attendance, here is who we have:

Me
King
Fu
Leslie
Brian
Mike
Doc Kim
Paul
Bryan
Andrew
Sean
Ramon
Tom

FLIGHT 1–bubbly (TBD) (1)
Cheese and fruit platter

FLIGHT 2–2010 Chardonnay (2)
2010 Alpine–FM3
2010 'Shoe–RAMON d R
Organic salad of mixed greens and a light lemon oil dressing

FLIGHT 3–Vintage 2006 (3)
2006 Alpine–BRIAN B
2006 Alpine Hillside–MIKE D
2006 Swan Terrace–DOC KIM
Chicken Spring Rolls (from Sundried Tomato Cafe in San Juan Cap)

FLIGHT 4–Exploing Proximity and Vintage: 2007 and 2010 Family Farm and Home (6)
2007 Family Farm–BRIAN B
2007 Home–LESLIE
2010 Family Farm–BRYAN C
2010 Home–PAUL
2012 Family Farm–via Kevin @ Rhys
2012 Home–via Kevin @ Rhys
Persian Mix–Chicken and Lamb Koobideh, Rice Duo of Addas and Shirin Polo, Must O’ Khiyar

FLIGHT 5–Skyline Retrospective (6)
2007 Skyline–ANDREW
2008 Skyline–KING
2009 Skyline–CHARLIE F
2010 Skyline–SEAN
2011 Skyline–TOM M
2012 Skyline–Via Kevin @ Rhys
Same food as Flight 4

FINAL DETAILS
Where: My House (please PM or email me for my house address if you need it. The gate should be open so don’t worry about the code).
Early arrivers: I’ll start prepping the salad and fruit/cheese courses around 3PM so if you want to come early and help, drop by.
Time: 4PM. We’ll kick off with the bubbly and cheese/fruit course and then sequence our way from there. Please open your wine before you come over and ensure it’s clear of TCA/fails. We’ll pour 1.5 ozs for each wine, allowing us to have 4-5 pours remaining for retastes for those who may want one.
Wines: The complete list is above. The extended forecast looks good for next weeked so we could do the bubbly and whites outside if we like. I’d think we’d be at about 75-80 degrees for these courses with shade in the backyard.
Food: As we talked about on Page 6, a few of you need to make food pickups. I will pay for the food in advance so all you need to do is pick it up on your way over. As a group, we’ll simply sum the total cost for all the items and spread the cost per person. We’ll settle up during our intermezzo break.
Stems: Bring as many as you like but bear in mind, the table surface will be cramped if everyone tries to put six stems in front of each other. Do as many stems as you wish but give some space to your Rhys lover on each side of your table place.
Cancellations: If you have to back out, give me a shout. With no waiting list, we’ll either drop that wine or look for one of us to replace it.
Sleep overs: Looks like just King and SPK. Anyone else?

Are you saying no +1s?

Arnie, yes I am. My sense is that we will have a # of people shut out if we have +1s attend. I enjoy the couples dinners very much and think that setting is great fun but for Rhys, I want to first set forth singles only and see what we get.

I’d like to make this Frank.

My life is fortunate in so many ways - including plenty of Rhys!

I’d love to come down for this Frank, put me down.

I would like to be in -1 :frowning: …The October date would work for me.

Down for both dates. Love no +1 dinners :slight_smile:

I’m in for the October date! Sounds like a great time!

Except for the no DD part

[drinkers.gif]

They don’t have uber in the boonies!? :wink:

Add me to the list, either data is fine. Now, what to do with Dana. [scratch.gif]

Tyler and Mike, impressive you’re wanting to make that commute to taste Rhys. Happy to have you, however, just do us a favor and pick one of the two dates, please.

Let me make a clarification to my +1 comment–I don’t want to create bad feelings, blow up relationships or alienate people who have supported the wine community, each other and our local dinner scene for a long time. As someone who thinks inclusion and at times crams my dining table with as many wine friends as it will hold, this is usually my custom. However, in this instance, my vision of the objective is to have some geek discussion about the Rhys wines and I predict we’ll have more interested parties than I have seats. Going single-only makes the seats go the farthest and also eliminates any personal judgment about a +1 taking a seat in the context of the event. If it turns out we don’t get traction for the seats, we should then revisit the attendance strategy. I hope this clarifies things better.

Folks, to further this event and evolve it, I was wondering about whether we make this a 2 segment event. Consider the idea of perhaps doing the whites and syrah as one track, say mid-day, then a space of time in the middle, followed in the evening by the pinot noir. In thinking about Rhys–progression over time, evolution, wine age and breadth of work–it may be profitable for us to split the body of work in 2 segments. Doing it this way keeps our palates potentially fresher, and allows us to perhaps do more bottles than one sitting would allow. While I have not hosted a wine dinner organized this way, I am trying to think outside the lines and create a format where we can really dig in and see both horizontal and vertical impressions.

Frank, 9/20 is out for me (going to Chicago to see my son).

Rhys with The Roman Numeral. Count me in.

I think I could do either date.

I don’t know my schedule that far in advance but please add me as as yes. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen everyone.

October 11th

either day is good for me

like the idea of syrah/chard in the afternoon and pinot in the evening

I would like to come down for this tasting. I can do either day and like the idea of two sessions.

The split tasting sounds like a great idea, but probably would be tough for me.

Im good with either date Frank. Not sure about the double tasting. Maybe start with the chard, then the pinot and finish it off with syrah?
I too am looking forward to trying the whole inventory that Rhys offers without sacrificing all those bottles from my cellar. Started buying in the 07 vintage and have tried very little to date.