La Paulee: did anybody go to the gala dinner?

[Mark_Golodetz]

Juergen
Always a point of contention; can one appreciate multiple bottles of great wine over a long period of time, and wouldn’t one be better off just drinking a bottle per person?

I have done both, and they are two very different experiences. Every year, we put together, an Over the Top lunch, each person bringing two bottles, one major and one interesting in the range of a couple hundred dollars. The lunch would start with a pretasting of the interesting, which would last an hour and a half. Then we would sit down and enjoy the other wines. Overall the lunch lasted five hours plus, my notes were coherent, and the wines were tasted in and out of context. Some bottles were substandard, and left unfinished,but most were empty at the end.

A couple of times, I reported the tasting on the Squire’s board, and received a good deal of flak for it, most far less polite than yours. We didn’t stop the lunches, but I did stop writing about them. I got tired of trying to explain that with enough time to enjoy the wines and doing our homework a well organized event like this was a pretty complete and wonderful experience.

[Markus_S]

No, all the wines were just put on shelves randomly. Many of the whites could have been corked as well, but there was certainly a lot more than reds. I was just struck by how many great wines were on those shelves, that were cherished for so long, and never made it. I was quite drunk at the time, and I tended to get quite philosophical.

As for how many wines were consumed that night, I seem to remember somebody saying there were 440 people there, everybody bringing multiple bottles, so figure at least 1000 bottles.

Ok, but this doesn’t answer the question of how you knew which ones were corked and which were premoxed.

[Markus_S]

Much prefer the “alt” dinners.

And how do you get invited to these?

[Mark_Golodetz]

No, all the wines were just put on shelves randomly. Many of the whites could have been corked as well, but there was certainly a lot more than reds. I was just struck by how many great wines were on those shelves, that were cherished for so long, and never made it. I was quite drunk at the time, and I tended to get quite philosophical.

As for how many wines were consumed that night, I seem to remember somebody saying there were 440 people there, everybody bringing multiple bottles, so figure at least 1000 bottles.

Ok, but this doesn’t answer the question of how you knew which ones were corked and which were premoxed.

I didn’t say I knew. What made you think I did.

[Ian_Dorin]

I think you need to take this event within context.

For those like Ray who can go to a venue where the food is the star, and enjoy wines around it with a focused theme, that’s great. It’s intimate and private, big pluses.

The Gala is a truly exceptional night of wine, but if you think about the food, it’s banquet style (although made by truly world class chefs) and a lot of plates go uneaten due to everyone roaming around and sharing wine. My hard and fast lesson from years past was down half a pizza before going, you’ll last longer The true upshot is getting to try an endless amount of great wine all night if you socialize with the room, and bring killer wine to share. There is a trade off here for sure.

[John_Chapman]

John Kapon was halfway down our table on the other side. At some point early on, I looked over and saw him unwrapping and eating what appeared to be a cheesesteak!

[Kevin_Porter]

John Kapon was halfway down our table on the other side. At some point early on, I looked over and saw him unwrapping and eating what appeared to be a cheesesteak!

It was really seitan and cashew cream but he authenticated it to be a cheesesteak.

[Markus_S]

No, all the wines were just put on shelves randomly. Many of the whites could have been corked as well, but there was certainly a lot more than reds. I was just struck by how many great wines were on those shelves, that were cherished for so long, and never made it. I was quite drunk at the time, and I tended to get quite philosophical.

As for how many wines were consumed that night, I seem to remember somebody saying there were 440 people there, everybody bringing multiple bottles, so figure at least 1000 bottles.

Ok, but this doesn’t answer the question of how you knew which ones were corked and which were premoxed.

I didn’t say I knew. What made you think I did.

Your own words : " A sad sight, the number of premoxed far outnumbered the corked" from earlier.
How could you tell, simply by looking at them, that the premoxed bottles outnumbered the corked? Either you were sniffing them OR tasting them to get that impression because you simply wouldn’t be able to tell merely by looking.

[Mark_Golodetz]

The number of whites far outnumbered the reds, so even allowing for some corked wines at the same percentage as the reds, one assumes the overage were premoxed

[Jurgen_Steinke]

Mark,

I participated at bacchanal events too and what I experienced was not always something in line with adoring fine wine. To say the least. I reacted because Ray complained about an After Show party when people were obviously drunk but reported from an event he thought was superb when 2 bottles of wine per person min. was the average consumption. I guess people didn’t look much better then.

[ERPark]

John Kapon was halfway down our table on the other side. At some point early on, I looked over and saw him unwrapping and eating what appeared to be a cheesesteak!

Told directly to me from someone I know who was seated at Kapon’s table during the Gala Dinner:

“He brought two pastrami sandwiches to the dinner, and didn’t appear to touch any of the courses that were served.”

[Ray.Tuppa_sch]

Mark,

I participated at bacchanal events too and what I experienced was not always something in line with adoring fine wine. To say the least. I reacted because Ray complained about an After Show party when people were obviously drunk but reported from an event he thought was superb when 2 bottles of wine per person min. was the average consumption. I guess people didn’t look much better then.

Jurgen,

Where did I complain?

And yes, you are “guessing”.

Also, would you like to guess how many bottles were corked or off? Guess how much wine was shared with people at surrounding tables? Guess how much was shared with staff?

[Ian_Dorin]

John Kapon was halfway down our table on the other side. At some point early on, I looked over and saw him unwrapping and eating what appeared to be a cheesesteak!

Told directly to me from someone I know who was seated at Kapon’s table during the Gala Dinner:

“He brought two pastrami sandwiches to the dinner, and didn’t appear to touch any of the courses that were served.”

I’m so doing that the next time I go. It’s simply not filling enough!

[K_John_Joseph]

John Kapon was halfway down our table on the other side. At some point early on, I looked over and saw him unwrapping and eating what appeared to be a cheesesteak!

Told directly to me from someone I know who was seated at Kapon’s table during the Gala Dinner:

“He brought two pastrami sandwiches to the dinner, and didn’t appear to touch any of the courses that were served.”

bring your own food when you know plenty of people at a grand wine event might have reason to poison you.

[ERPark]

John Kapon was halfway down our table on the other side. At some point early on, I looked over and saw him unwrapping and eating what appeared to be a cheesesteak!

Told directly to me from someone I know who was seated at Kapon’s table during the Gala Dinner:

“He brought two pastrami sandwiches to the dinner, and didn’t appear to touch any of the courses that were served.”

bring your own food when you know plenty of people at a grand wine event might have reason to poison you.

Don’t hate the player, hate the game…

[R_Frankel]

Much prefer the “alt” dinners.

And how do you get invited to these?

As I wrote above, it’s good old fashioned networking and footwork. One of the events I attended was put on by a retailer I buy from. A month or so before La Paulee week I emailed my reps inquiring about events. The others were with wine loving friends, many of whom I’d met before, here and on other wine boards.

[Craig_G]

John Kapon was halfway down our table on the other side. At some point early on, I looked over and saw him unwrapping and eating what appeared to be a cheesesteak!

It was really seitan and cashew cream but he authenticated it to be a cheesesteak.

[Ray.Tuppa_sch]

Much prefer the “alt” dinners.

And how do you get invited to these?

My dinner was with good friends whom I regularly drink and dine.

[Mark_Y]

Jurgen,
Where did I complain?
And yes, you are “guessing”.
Also, would you like to guess how many bottles were corked or off? Guess how much wine was shared with people at surrounding tables? Guess how much was shared with staff?

Ray, i think people should always be free to do what they want, and the event you went to sounds awesome.
I think what Jurgen was referring to was this quote:

Never been to a Gala Dinner and I’m relatively sure I’ve never missed an evening I would enjoy.
Once went to an after-gala party and 90% of the people who had been to the Gala Dinner could barely speak or stand.

Followed by:

Joined six friends at Marea and drank three DP’s, two Cristals, seven Grand Cru Lefalives and seven Roumier Bonnes Mares.

Let’s be serious, 18 bottles is a lot for 7 people… no matter how much shared with others/staff/corked (i mean for the avg party, 8 bottles is quite a bit for 7 people)… so the quotes probably sounded contradictory to Jurgen.
Nonethelss, who cares… it was fun… good company, all is well.

[ChrisStags]

As John said Kapon ate the sandwich the whole meal. At first we thought it was a cheese steak, but it may have been pastrami. The jury is still out, but as John would attest to the wines at our table were fantastic except for a few. We seemed to have an incredible amount of mags both white and red. Annways, nice meeting you John and make sure to ping me when you are in SF.