Hospice du Rhone 2016, Paso Robles

April 15-16
Anyone up for a Friday dinner? April 15
A Sunday afternoon lunch or dinner? April 17
Sunday Berserker events? Tin City?
Anyone interested in the Saxum caves? Rumors of a 2013 Rocket Block?
Any other Paso producers of interest? Linne? Epoch? Booker? Law? Torrin? Nicora? Clos Solene? Ledge? Turtle? Villa Creek? Denner? Copia? Tablas? Kinero? Aaron? 4 Lanterns? Brecon? Herman? L’Aventure? Hoage? Caliza? Other?
I’m willing to do some leg work, and shill for my grape customers. (not all of the above are)

Yes to all of the above. We had a great time with the phenomenal wines, company, and paella a couple years back.

We’d love to check out the caves at Saxum and haven’t gotten around to check out Copia, Clos Solene, Law, nor Ledge but have heard great things… We love Torrin and Nick is doing great things with his label as well.

We would like to help bear some of the burden so what can we do to help?

Bill isn’t there another thread on this? Hospice du Rhone, Paso in April - Event Planner - Online or Offline - WineBerserkers

I will discuss with wife but it is right after we are coming back from Hawaii.

Just trying to gauge interest in ancillary activities.

+1…to any and all outside happenings.

I loved to check out the Saxum caves. Last time we did our berserker gathering the tasting at Linne was insanely great. Highlight of the trip.

Never been to Tin City, still need to check out Law.

Bill I will be there, my wife is iced up. I would be up to any wineries. Dinner sounds great.

My wife and I attended in 2012 and will be there again in April. May be there with a small group, but always interested in any potential Berserker events.

Cheers,

Steve

I will be attending and pouring and would love to join in some of these festivities as well. Please keep me in the loop!

Bill, we are in! It will be me, wife Lisa whom you have met (and was eager to take photos of HeartStone), and our son David (28). We have taken a rental for a week starting the Wednesday before Hospice, and Danny Mazza will be staying with us!

Access to the Saxum Caves would be a blast! Anything you participate in planning would be fine for us! I had also been in touch with Larry Schaffer. Any assistance I might lend from the east coast, I am here for you!

Any local craft brewery suggestions as well?

My wife and I will be up in Paso for the weekend with two other family members and will be very interested in any events that come about.

Dana and I have decided that we WILL be going to Hospice and not going to the NY Berserkerfest. Count us in on any and all events. Lets do the Saxum caves and supply some old bottles for a retrospective tasting in the caves.

I only mentioned the caves as something I can inquire about. Let’s not get over-excited just yet. :slight_smile:
I do have an 11 year vertical of Bone Rock somewhere…
With HdR Friday & Saturday (with dinner), how about Sunday activities & dinner?

Not sure if there is an official HdR Dinner Friday?? Thursday it sounds like something is planned. If nothing official is set for Friday, something absolutely needs to be planned!!

Friday 8-7
Saturday 8-10
Is the full weekend package
Both days have big tasting

There have been dinners scheduled around this event schedule. Historically they used to do a bowling event on Thursday and at the last HdR they had a fantastic seminar/Chateauneuf dinner on Thursday!

Nothing prevents us from doing something Friday night… and Sunday is pretty much wide open! We will be arriving Wednesday evening as well (landing in LA around noontime!

This reboot of HdR doesn’t seem as well prepared as prior events?
Thursday - “stay tuned for Rhonely details”
Seminars 2-4 have neither topics nor speakers announced.
Hope they get it together soon.

The tastings are a different format with all participating wineries pouring at the “opening tasting” on Friday that runs till 7, and the closing tasting on Saturday, supposedly different wines.

My concern on Friday is that after an all afternoon tasting of hundreds of wines, I’m not usually at my best for appreciating the best of the best of the best, which a Berserker event brings out. :slight_smile:

It’s all about pacing.

-Al

Of the various ticket options, does anyone have advice and what’s the best way to go short of dropping $1k for the all event pass?

In the past, I bought the event pass. It went up the first few years I attended, $595 in 2004, $695 in 2005, $795 in 2006, then stayed at that level through 2012. The auction lunch can be interesting. The seminars can vary in interest, it would be easier to decide if the other three seminars were announced. I usually did not attend the final barbecue (opting to go out to dinner with friends), although many people enjoy them. Many of my friends who attended only bought tickets to the two tastings. These were an interesting mix of domestic and international producers/importers. The latter were mainly from France, but also Spain, Australia, and a smattering of South American and South African producers. At present, the list looks more heavily domestic than in the past, with a larger fraction of the domestic from California (and Paso Robles). I don’t know whether registration for wineries is still open, the mix may change.

To expand on the comment above about the amount of alcohol, if you attend the seminars, there is wine at 9:30, more at 11:00, wine with lunch, a large afternoon tasting, sometimes aperitifs at the lodging, wine with dinner, often more wine after dinner especially if you join the crowd that used to meet at Villa Creek until the wee hours. It really does require spitting, and a fair bit of discipline at the tastings and meals and what not. I always skipped the late nights at Villa Creek because I was getting up early to partly keep up with work and to go for a run.

-Al

A great overview indeed, Al. My guess is that you will see a lot more French producers coming on board, as they always have - not sure why they have not been announced. And yep, having those other three Seminars nailed down would certainly help the cause. My guess is that many of them are dependent upon foreign producers, so until they are finalized, perhaps many of the seminars will not be? One seminar in the recent past has been devoted to ‘newer’ producers and a full spotlight on them - we’ll see if that takes place.

I will say that from a winery perspective, it is now a lot more expensive for us to pour. Instead of choosing whether to pour on Fri or Sat, we no longer have that choice - and our fees only allow us into the tastings, not to the rest of the offerings (seminars, etc). Therefore, don’t be surprised to see fewer winemakers at these side events.

Yep, there is a lot of drinking at this event - and all of the wines are darned good!!! - so it is tough to ‘spit and dump’ . . . but if you want to make it through the long days, you really have no choice :slight_smile:

Cheers!