Coordinating the official BerserkerDay dinner(s)

WINE TALK
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Hi All, some of you may remember this thread from a few months back. The goal is to have several wine dinners to celebrate BerserkerDay all organized on the same date in multiple locations across the country. Then organize 1 big tasting notes thread so everyone can join in on the fun and share their tasting experiences.

The thread generated a lot of interest and based on the votes and my discussions with @ToddFrench I think the following is the best way to organize a BD dinner. For the dinner to be on theme of BD, I think it is best to host the dinner the evening before BerserkerDay and have it serve as a “preview” of the wines being offered on BD. (This part is contingent on the wineries if they’re comfortable sending out a couple bottles to potentially a few different dinners across the USA. If we cannot get any commitments from wineries, then the dinners will be 100% BOYB.) If you’re reading this and you are one of those winery owners who participate in BD, please DM me to let me know if you’re happy to help with arranging the wines.

A request will be made to see if the wineries participating in BD are willing to send out some sample bottles to the various BD dinner parties held the night before. This way people can taste the wines before they buy on BD.

Logistics
When: If BD is Friday 1/24, the dinners will be held Thursday 1/23. If BD is Friday 1/31, then the dinners will be Thursday 1/30.

Wine: The wine served will hopefully be some preview bottles from wineries participating in BD. It is also requested that attendee’s bring a wine they have purchased from previous BD (or any wine they feeling like sharing if they never made a previous BD purchase.) If everyone is generally tasting the same wines on the same day, I think the tasting notes will be quite fun!

Volunteers: To organize this, I will need a few volunteers willing to organize the BD dinner in their area. I am in NYC so I will host there. Any hosts available in LA, SF, or Miami, etc… any areas with a large number of berserkers? I want to open the discussion here, then coordinate with the other hosts to setup official threads in the “events” section of this website. It will be up to the host to pick the location. Based on the votes from my previous thread, price point should be under $200 per person, so please choose your location accordingly.

Any questions or comments, please post below. What I wrote above is not 100% set in stone, so if there are some additional good ideas, I am all ears.

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I am in for NY!

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Great idea John, count me in

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am up fer that if I’m around!

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Im in for NYC plus 1 likely

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Can do a DC crew would be a super meeting of the LOW BROW NO TASTE DC DOODS TASTING GROUP

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I’d be in for Chicago. Plenty of great BYOB spots here in the city.

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If I am allowed to drink by January (probably), I will come and my wife will probably come too. Is there a cumulative list of Berserkerday wines because I am not sure which wines in my cellar are from that source?

Oh look, so that’s where the Riverain Tench comes from. I could bring one of those for an appropriate restaurant featuring so red meat.

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Also in for Chicago. Is there a real face policy?
1000007484

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Well, if anyone finds themselves near Chico, Ca, we’d be happy to host!

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Bumping this again, as I’m starting to form thoughts of BD16, planning way ahead…

I’m likely going to limit the number of newbies this year, try to double down on the BerserkerDay Darlings, the veterans, as the state of the wine market is such that nearly every tiny producer is struggling, and several (like BerserkerDay darling Sterling, for example) are closing shop. BerserkerDay has ALWAYS been about direct-from-producer opportunity for direct-to-consumer sales, and that’s more important NOW than ever.

While some would say BerserkerDay is not a place where consumers are able to buy ‘deals’, it most certainly is, for myriad reasons, principal of which is the direct relationship between consumer and producer, furthermore, the producers sell at significant discounts that ALSO allow them to stay in business, rather than dump inventory to a flash sale site where they receive sales revenue basically at cost - that’s not sustainable, and I, for one, will continue to realize the amazing value of BerserkerDay for its deals to consumers on (often) micro-production wines. That’s what has made BerserkerDay legend.

ANYWAY, off the soapbox, back to the OP - with the reduction in newbies (projected, we’ll see what happens, that’s the goal, anyway) one way to support these dinners would be to have the Forum Faves send samples of any unique/new wines as well, to the groups, provided the events are (obviously) before BerserkerDay, or, even better, on Preview Day, with the assumption many of the attendees will have access to the Preview Day sales, as members of Grand Cru Crü or Monopole Crü

Lastly, I’ll provide some ‘door prizes’ to the groups - The Wine Check Stemware cases (the ones I use all the time, and have equipped several local Berserkers with) and some OG Wine Berserkers t-shirts, with the grumpy troll Berserker dude on it.

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This seems too late IMO.
The event would be on Preview Night which would be after the time most would be purchasing on Preview Day.

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Do we have any other volunteers in the areas containing numerous WB’s? Anyone from LA or SF?

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I would be willing to put something together in Miami.

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Bumping. The original thread had a lot of interest. Do we have anyone on the west coast interested in organizing? It appears most interest is on the east coast.

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Would really be great to do one a few days ahead of BD to help everyone make their buying decisions

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John is just doing this so I am too hungover on BD to outbid him.

I accept.