When: Monday, April 1st 5:30 sit down with white wines and their blind white wine flight, and 6pm start. I’ll get there around 5:15 if anyone gets out early.
Requirements: Bring two bottles of red wine, of the same grape (or dominant grape blend). One bottle must be worth more than $100 and one must be worth less than $40. Both should be concealed. This will be a blind tasting. (Use your best judgement here, but no one is going to throw you out if you are a touch over/under).
Where: Corkbuzz 13 e 13th street (Union Square)
The idea is this: People will bring two bottles of red wine of the same grape (or dominant grape blend). One will be on the expensive side (over $100) and one will be on the less expensive side (under $40). The bottles will be concealed (in a bag or aluminum foil or something to cover them). Target amount of people for this dinner should be ~8, once you go above 10 it will be too unruly. Each person will pass their two bottles around and the group will taste them and try to determine what they are. First vote will be for which people think is the expensive vs cheap bottle. The two bottles can be from anywhere in the world, but preference towards classic regions (they don’t need to be from the same region): example could be a 2015 Clos Vougeot vs 2020 Meomi. People can make specific guesses if they want, or just try to guess the grape and vintage. How formal or casual your guesses are will totally be up to you; WSET, CMS, or just winging it are all fine…
I’m currently studying for the WSET Diploma, so something like this really appeals to me. I hope others are also interested in a blind tasting dinner as well.
Waitlist (we need two more drops before we can hit the waitlist… will check back the week before):
JulieC
DanA
Stephen_Chen
Gregory_Dal_Piaz
Jason_Samansky
nbri_zuela
Robert_Dentice
JohnE: We’ll get you on the next one when you are back
If you are in Raleigh go to Oakwood Pizza Box. Best pizza in the area and the owner Anthony is a big wine guy. Has some cool bottles and retail pricing.
This is a great idea, I would be interested if the date works. If it’s going to be 2bot pp, consider limiting the number of people to a reasonable amount 8-10, and keep in mind you might need to pick a place that has the space for you, maybe something in Chinatown or another type of zero/low/negotiable corkage byo place.
I’ve been debating a blind event vs a Pate en Croute pairing event as my next one. So happy to just let you do all the hard work for the blind @PeterB .
I had been thinking about restricting variety in some way. Or regions. Judgement of Paris riffs are always fun; especially when label drinking burg-heads miscall cali/oregon chardonnay.
I’m back in either late March or early April and can swing Mondays.
Thanks! I was thinking originally of just doing Bordeaux varieties, but I think as long as both bottles are the same variety, that narrows it down if we are doing two at a time. If this is successful, I envision more of these down the road…
Sounds like there is enough interest… will start thinking about potential dates tomorrow. Probably a wait list starting now unless we have done a dinner together, which will then take priority.
If this event gets pushed back into May I am 100000% interested. If I miss it, hopefully it can be done again in the Summer. Practicing blind tasting is an important skill. I beg to say this would be interesting if this turned into a quarterly event.
GREAT IDEA. In 2005, Charles Massoud did that with the Long Island Wine Challenge. My first offline and I did not know what drinking 42 glasses of wine in seven flights woud do to me. It’s a miracle I made it home.
As the Inaugural East Coast Champion of the Heritage Blind Wine Tasting Competition (Ha! - Suck it, you AFWE types), I am in, but not the first week of April, when I will be taking my grandson to Disneyworld. Those of us in the FKALBTG group had blind dinners monthly for 10 years, which taught us very little, other than the famous saying, “often wrong, but never in doubt.”
Assorted comments. NOTE that these are offered ONLY for you to think about. I don’t care what you decide.
Decide whether you want people to bring the same vintage for both bottles.
Decide whether you want the wine (easy for the under $40, less so for the over $100) to be easily available at retail or can you bring inexpensive Berserkerday wines that may fit the definition but are not wines that everyone can get after reading the tasting report.
Name tags. Remember the F’in name tags. I always forget them.
I have relationships with a bunch of restaurant managers, as do others here, so if you have an idea of food type, many of us can make suggestions. FYI - I can usually get the private space in the back of the Bobby Van’s on 54th Street with no corkage so long as we leave a good tip for the staff. But it is steak, red meat, and a few fish dishes, and maybe you do not want that. It cost us $140 per person all in twice recently, and $165 once recently only because we paid for the winemaker and his wife.
Consider whether you want a complete free for all or whether you want people to declare their grape type so that you have a broad selection, or maybe the opposite - you really want six cabs and six pinots.
Decide how you want to define “worth.” Current purchase price, original purchase price, you get the idea.
Not that I will definitely do this, but may I do something completely ridiculous, like 1978 Quinta do Noval Nacional versus NV Quinta do Noval Porto Noval Black. Or 1999 Gallo Family Vineyards Cabernet Barrelli Creek Vineyard versus 1998 Araujo Estate Cabernet Eisele Vineyard.
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