I will be in town on the 4th, staying in Cupertino but willing to venture a reasonable distance, and would love to meet, or see again, any willing and available locals for dinner. Let’s work on a roster and a location and then we can talk about wines to bring.
I’d think we’d want to cap it at 8(?) and Alan, Wes, George, and (tentatively) Ashish have expressed some interest. Anyone else care to join us? Feel free to reach out to amenable types as well.
By the way, I also have a tour booked at Mount Eden for 2:00 that afternoon. They have just revised their visit program, and now charge $15 for the tour, but provide a two-wine tasting to go with it. Tours are limited to 6 people, but are private in the sense that once someone books a time slot, even solo like me, they take that time slot off the board. So I now have that slot to myself, but can add any of you if you’d like to spend part of Friday afternoon up there instead of at work. If that’s you, let me know and I’ll let them know.
If I’ve missed anyone or messed anything up, please let me know. If I’ve listed you as tentative, please confirm in or out when you can.
This is shaping up to be a fun group, including a few folks I’ve been e-wining with for 25 years but haven’t yet met in person - looking forward to it!
Now that we have a full slate for dinner, where and when?
I hope to stop by the Ridge “First Friday” tasting after the Mount Eden tour and then head back to the hotel in Cupertino. I will have a rental car, but don’t plan on using it for dinner, so the closer to Cupertino the better for my Uber cost, but I’m flexible. If you all have a “go to” place with good relationships, etc., that will work for me. Also happy to share a ride if anyone lives near my hotel.
Dinner - where? time? what to bring? Cupertino is most convenient for me as I’d like to ditch the rental car at the hotel before dinner and rely on cab/uber to and from. I hear Alexander’s is good? But I’m flexible. Any place where one of you has a good relationship would be great, as that always helps for groups like these. We can take to PM or e-mail as well if needed.
Tour - still need email addresses for Alan and G. Singh.
Just going off of Google - Le Papillon in San Jose? Anyone know anything about it? They do a 7-course TM for $125 - I wonder if we got them a list of 8 wines in advance they’d do a menu for us?
Dave 125 plus tax and tip is out of the range of many. But I ate once at Papillon and it was superb. Formal place though. And I dont know how friendly thry would be about eight bottles. Alexanders is more relaxed but its food is more for New World style wines. And it’s also expensive. Plumed Horse in Saratoga is fancy but wine friendly. Basin in Saratoga is relaxed and the food is from good sources and the price is way below the three aforementioned.
My bias is toward BYO-friendly.
Poking around on the web, it looks like Plumed Horse is even pricier than Papillon, so the Basin seems to be the current leading nominee. Bella Saratoga nearby also may be a possibility?
Does anyone have a connection at either place or know how they would handle a dinner like ours? Anyone want to suggest any other place? Otherwise, I feel like I need to start making some executive decisions or we’re going to be bumping up against it trying to get a reservation.
Separate question - if we eat in Saratoga, depending on my timing, I may rather drive to the restaurant than the hotel. This would then mean leaving the car there overnight and picking it up in the morning. Does anyone think that would be a problem?
Let’s try and get this planning all wrapped up. If I don’t hear otherwise, I’m going to call the Basin tomorrow afternoon and inquire about a 7:00 start, and then call Bella Saratoga next, if needed.
OK we are booked for Basin at 7:00 pm. I spoke with the GM and they are fine with the plan. $24 per for corkage, and not that we need more wine but they will comp one cork per bottle purchased from the list.
As for theme, their website proclaims Basin to be “An American Restaurant House with Influences Derived from Generations of Spanish and Italian Heritage” so my suggestion is Spain, Italy, or US wines from Spanish or Italian varieties. I have a 1997 La Rioja Alta Gran Reserva 904 that would fit. Alternately, if no one else has a themed dessert wine, I have a singleton 2007 Dettori Moscadeddu, which is from Sardinia and appears to be muscat. I have no experience with it, but the CT notes are positive. I’ll have to check what size it is, it’s probably a 375 or 500.
Dave, that’s $24 for every bottle we open? And, just to be clear, no limit on how many we can bring in? As for buying off their list, personally I’d rather just pay the corkage on whatever bottles we bring. Though they do show a 2013 “Ridge, Montebello” for $105 - which I assume is not THE Monte Bello, but just the regular Cab.