Anyone see this thread on the site not to be named? Anyhow, he is going to have a tasting of insanely old wines with “The third man of our group is a young one. Probably less than 30 years old.” Any guesses?
Don’t know, but his stuff is always a joy to read!
Totally agree.
Under 30 I don’t know, but Rudi is in that age range.
Audoze charges for those things I hope you guys know…and not for his friends in attendance. They ride the paying attendees.
When I first started on that board I was impressed but its like certain others who love to stroke themselves for their old wines they can afford to buy, you have to wonder how so many of those old bottles are in such great condition. He writes a good tale but I think much of it is fiction.
I don’t mind - I just enjoy the stories. (after all, it’s not coming out of MY wallet)
Totally agree. When I had lunch with him and Christine Huang in Paris in 2006, he was charming, pleasant, and well-versed in wine. However, mid-way through the meal he started to ask us about winelovers we knew in our respective cities who might be interested in coming to his dinners. His stories are complete shills for his pay-as-you-go dinners where he brings very, very old wines that are mostly dead (the 1937 Corton he brought was pretty much DOA but perked up a bit with food, just barely).
Absolutely… he may tell a sweet tale (much of it fiction indeed) and his interests are 100% commercial. Not that there is anything inherently wrong but it he should come out and actually admit it instead of disguising it under all the poetic prose.
I do not know who you are talking about, but I understand that this person invites people to dinners to drink his old wines but charges them for the wine? That is most surprising. I would never even dream of charging my dinner guests for the bottles I open for them. That is inconceivable. If someone invited me to his dinner and told me I’d have to pay for the wine or food, I’d tell him to go stick his bottles in his ass (May I say that here?).
LMD,
They pay for the food, he comps the wines, but his prices are astronomical.
I’m sorry, what do you mean by “comps”?
He charges you only for the food, meaning the wine is “free”. Of course the price he charges for the food pays for not only the wines but many other of his luxuries. Granted, it is a business, but he makes it seem like just a gathering of old and new friends. Which is brilliant, of course.
Thanks, P, that is good to know.
Noel
I see, thanks for explaining. I would never attend a dinner like that - not that I am likely to ever be invited.
N
I met him once at his home in the south of France. We had lunch with Harry Karis, Harry’s son, my wife and kids, and Mrs. Audouze. I found him charming and we had a lot of fun. We went back to his home and played tennis and had a great time. He never tried to sell his lunches or mine me for info. Funny, though, I brought the oldest table wines that day. I brought an 81 Ridge Montebello and 87 Dominus with me from Cleveland. His cellar was back in Paris although he did open some older Maury and a Yquem. I am not complaining as those were quite generous not to mention lunch.
I beleive he is quite passionate and truly enjoys those wines which are certainly not for everyone anymore than Screaming Eagle, Levy & McClellan or for that matter Luneau Papin. People can pay the price, or not. As for his friends, its like distributor tastings here that are open to the public. They often pad the house with retailers who get comped. That doesn’t change the price for the paying public. The public has to decide if it has intrinsic worth to them and go (or not). I know of one DRC tasting that had two paying customers for the whole dinner, my friend and his wife. He was happy to go and was one of the highlights of his wine drinking life. It was not cheap.
As to who has that money and is under thirty? No idea. I look forward to the notes of the day.
The problem that I see with his posts is that he is obvioulsy doing it to promote his business and Mark seems fine with that. Yet as we’ve seen the Gargasite thread is closed because it is apparently promoting a company to much. I’m confused :? Both are retailers of sorts and Francois obviously writes up these great posts to promote his product and that is ok for some reason. I have no doubt that he refers people interested in his dinners to his posts on the other forum. He at least needs to put a small disclaimer that he is ITB, or something like that. His posts are totally misleading by making you think it was a great group of friends that got together and drank some old wines. As that was what I thought until about a year ago when someone told me the truth. He also loves to show off his amazing cellar…but it really isn’t his cellar, it’s his business cellar!
From what I understand, he was a steel executive who amassed this large cellar over a long period of time. Upon retirement, he started doing these wines dinners. Please correct me if this is wrong. If it’s right, I don’t see too much of a problem with it. People pay around 2K to have very very rare and old wines. When I read his posts, I certainly know the background and I’m ok with it. He discloses it and anyone who wants to can look him up to see his background. He may make a little money from this, but 10K or so a couple times a year(I think 8-10) is not going to make this man super wealthy. I think he honestly does it because he enjoys it and also supplements his habits a bit. Sounds like a good job to me.
Noel,
You really don’t have to wait for an invitation. If you expre$$ interest and contact him, you are in. I’m not a fan of M. Audouze exactly because of what Cris, Michel and Andy V. mention. Also, he must have THE luckiest streak in the wine world…almost nothing he has ever opened is short of “glorious and sublime”. [nea.gif]
Hi, Jorge.
I see, it really is a dinner you pay to attend. Nothing wrong with that per se. The International Wine & Food Society holds official wine functions at least once a month and I, a member thereof, attend those every so often (as well as those of a few other groups I am involved with) . However, as I understand from previous posts, the subject “host” makes his dinners appear to be dinners he hosts for friends where they are really pay-as-you-attend events (where anyone willing to part with enough money can attend). That, I have a problem with.
I am fortunate enough to enjoy some good wines, as well as very old ones, on my own steam and through “real invitations” by friends. I see no need to attend the kinds of dinners subject of this thread.
Best,
N
This is directed at no one in particular, just seeing where this thread may go:
I’m not going to tell people what to do, nor edit anything, but let’s keep this thread away from bashing certain people…talk about the wines, talk about the “business model”, etc. but I’d rather we not attack individuals. That being said, it’s a free country and on this board we pride ourselves on free thinking - so your call…