This is the big week of dinners, tastings and events culminating in the auction. Any locals playing and any ITBers from the board coming? Pretty sure im attending Thursday’s trade tasting, but not much else.
Peay dinner tonight at Aria and the Sunday post-auction drinking day (if I get so lucky as to get my invite - it’s TBD right now). Else the other truly organized events are too rich for me.
Just checked out the site . . . . WOW! That’s a boatload of dinners, from those taking place at restaurants to especially those taking place in private residences! Simply awesome! Seems like a fantastic, albeit expensive, week of wine and food.
Yes Larry, it’s something else. And then there are a ton of gatherings that happen outside of the High-sponsored events. Crazy week - but good for us wine folks in Atlanta as we tend to get passed over for a lot of the visits from wineries during the rest of the year…
I will be going to the Trade Tasting, but nothing else. I would love to go the Auction, but everything else is too rich for my blood. If I could only win the Lottery.
I am headed to the Markham/R. Stuart & Co. dinner at Murphy’s on Wednesday. I dined with Andy Peay and Michael Hirby/Schatzi Throckmorton of Peay and Relic, respectively, last year and had a blast. The winemaker dinners (in the restaurants) are a little less expensive and are a great way to interact with winemakers in a smaller setting. The auction and the house parties are a bit much for my budget.
I’ll be doing most of the events. Let’s try to meet up at the trade tasting.
This is the one time my wife knows that I’ll be gone the whole week and I can get away with it. 
I have the good fortune of getting to attend the Friday night and Saturday events. Saturday is like trick or treating for grownups.
Brandon, I hope to see you there.
First post, though I’ve read with interest for a long time…
We’re excited to be sending two from Vinfolio. Catherine is going to the Kosta Browne dinner and Leah to the Palmer dinner on Thursday night, in addition to the dinner Friday night and the auction Saturday. I know they’re both looking forward to meeting and re-connecting with some of our Atlanta area customers and we’re all jealous that they’re the ones going! Looks like a lot of fun!
I’ll be at the Thursday tasting.
I’ve been considering one of the mass Oregon wineries events.
The auction catalog is serious wine pørn.
Having never been before, and possibly being interested, the web site isn’t all that clear. Am I correct that the auction itself is part of a reception that is $400/person, but all the tickets are sold out? In other words, if you don’t already have a ticket, you can’t go this year?
Correct.
That’s what I was afraid of. Guess we’ll have to take our $800 and blow it on wine.
Or you could make a donation to the High Museum of Art - that’s the purpose of the Wine Auction, after all. And think of all the money you’ll save by not being at the Auction, thus not getting caught up in auction fever…
The day is nearly upon us and I’d love to meet any of you who will be at the trade tasting tomorrow. Dennis, hopefully you’ll still recognize me from our recent dinner. Brandon, Thomas and any other Atlantans who will be at the event…I’m a tall balding guy who will be with a taller balder guy. That’s probably half the room so, whenin doubt, look for me at the high dollar tables!
I’ll be there, too, today’s trade tasting only. The list for the trade tasting is super Napa centric, followed by Oregon it appears. Basically nothing from Europe (Chateau Palmer, though, and Roederer).
Where did you find the list? Despite the link in the confirmation that supposedly showed the 90 trade tasting participants, all I could find was the full list of about 150 wineries who donated or are involved somewhere in the overall auction.
Well, I can’t find the link now, I printed it out last week. It may be the longer list though, rather than just the trade tasting, that I have. We shall see…
The ones I marked to be sure to hit are Chateau Boswell, Chateau Palmer, Epoch, Hirsch, Kosta Browne, Linne Calodo, Morlet, Peay, Peirson Meyer, Taylor Fladgate (assuming they have something interesting), and Scholium.
Just back, this event just reinforces for me that I don’t enjoy tasting at big wine events - too crowded, not conducive to sitting with the wine, too much followed by too much. Yes, you get the benefit of trying many things, and for many of the wineries speaking with the owners and/or winemakers themselves. But otherwise… eh.
That said, I did try a few things that were really interesting (among many things that were not). Arkenstone’s Sauv Blanc is nicely floral with restrained tropical fruit. The Jacqueline Cuvee sem/sauv blend is powerful stuff, amped up sauv blanc, maybe a bit more residual sugar than I care for, but v interesting. I really dig Kosta Browne’s pinots, the Russian River has a great mossy forrest floor aspect to it, and the Sonoma I liked even more, a bit more balance between that and the dark fruit. Peay’s pinots also impressed, especially the Scallop Shelf, superb nose, lovely body. Pierson Meyer’s Heintz Chard was fascinating, more mineral than other Heintz I’ve had, then intensely vibrant. The L’angevin Russian River Pinot is also my kind of wine. Also interesting - Scholium of course, just fascinating stuff, not always my cup of tea, but I love the black olive and caramel nose on the Androkteinos. You’ll notice I don’t mention many cabs or other big reds, they were present in abundance, but none of them spoke to me.
Following my last post here, I had to go write up a little rant on the topic of big tasting events: http://www.thirstysouth.com/2012/03/29/drowning-in-wine/