Thank you all for the kind words above, especially that of Spartacus Holdredge. He summed it up very well. And in fact, as I said on Saturday in my opening remarks in the backyard, I owe John a great debt for helping me steer Falltacular in the early days, to not give up on the idea. Thanks Mr Holdredge.
We got all this started on Friday night, with about 35 of us dining at Fratello’s to kick off the weekend. I suspect we had about 50 bottles out on the tables, it was a gas. Here are a few photos I took over dinner:
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Then, the big event on Saturday AM. We had the house ready by about 1045 and it was nice to catch up and take a breath before we got to cracking. So, some stats:
I’d gather we had about 115 people all in.
We had over 130 different wines arrayed all over the house, across 6 stations.
And the most important part, we raised $14,000.00, beating last year. $6,500 at the front door and another $7,500 in the silent auction for the garage. To pull down 14K really moved me, all of you stepping up to help. THANK YOU!
I appreciate Burkie’s photos above, I am not to that talent but here is a few I took:
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Over the years, with the help of Robert and Carlin Yamada doing the tasting booklets, signage and collateral, you make this event classy. For the winemakers, early and still stalwart supporters like Brian Loring, Ed Kurtzman, Adam Lee, Wes Hagen–I love you guys for helping me do this thing since the very beginning. All of the new wineries that have supported the event, so many to mention that have come aboard to support us–you all have made it work–THANK YOU! Here is the list from this past weekend–support these wineries!
AGHARTA
ARGOT WINES
AUGUST WEST
BEVAN CELLARS
BIG BASIN
BLACK KITE
C3
CABOT
CARGASACCHI
CARLISLE
CLOS PEPE
COPAIN
CORE WINES
ETRE
FLYING WINE CELLARS
HOLDREDGE
HUG CELLARS
JEAN EDWARD CELLARS
JEMROSE
KEEFER RANCH
LADD CELLARS
LORING WINE COMPANY
LUCIA
NOVY
OLSON OGDEN
POINT CONCEPCION
RHYS
SANDLER
SAXON BROWN
SIDURI
SOJOURN CELLARS
SWITCHBACK RIDGE
TERCERO WINES
VIRAGE
WEBER WINE COMPANY
WIND GAP
To all the volunteers who poured the wines, who helped with setup and breakdown, it’s a team effort and through wine, we have helped Laura’s House with a solid donation as they work to intervene and save the lives and women and kids who can’t do it alone.
We had a great day Saturday. And to my wife, thanks for putting up with this each year and helping us make it happen–you’re the best and to John’s point above, I did marry well.
As a final point, it is hard to taste things during the event, running around. I did find a few things that I wanted to flag:
2008 Rhys Skyline syrah–uh, wow. I hope to get some of this.
2009 Copain Les Voisins pinot noir–rock solid and terrific flavors.
2009 Jemrose Viognier–the aromatics and flavors are spot on.
2007 Big Basin Rattlesnake Rock syrah–terrific balance and complexity
and for what it’s worth, the Black Kite pinots, all 3 bottlings, I think were the first wines to drain during the event. That says a lot about Jeff’s wines.