I have been talking to some friends about organizing a Barbaresco-themed dinner in early to mid-November and I wanted to post here to gauge interest.
There are generally several possible concepts:
Single Producer Focus (i.e., Roagna dinner, Produttori dinner, etc…): Self-explanatory – everyone brings something reasonably aged from a particular producer and we just compare the crus horizontally and vertically within the producer’s range of wines.
Battle of the Crus (i.e., Roagna Paje v. Produttori Paje; Roagna Montefico v. Produttori Montefico v. La Ca Nova Montefico; Cortese Rabaja v. Produttori Rabaja, etc…): Basically, we match up producers by crus and compare the wines against each other. Produttori makes it pretty easy because of the wide range. It’s just finding producers to compare against Produttori.
Modernism to Traditionalism: Basically, we do a vertical of one producer’s wine (i.e., Sottimano) that was reported to be a modernist at one point but whose wines have become more traditional. Basically see if the change is true and determine how the change in winemaking changed the wines themselves. A little harder to pull off – also, this does not have to be strictly Barbaresco. We could also have a vertical of a former modernist Barolo producer (Azelia, maybe?). This would probably be more work, but I think would be a fun concept.
So far, a couple people have already expressed interest to me – we are probably going to keep this between 8-10. If you are interested in this dinner in November, please chime in here and please let me know which concept sounds most appealing to you.
I’m in but of all the producers you mention I only have Produttori. Maybe Roagna.
Sori San Lorenzo which I have is an honorary Barbaresco LOL
I could buy something as we get closer
Thanks Yule. I’d be interested if the date works out!. I’d probably vote for a couple of Crus if there was a specific focus required, or just a looser “just bring some tasty Barbaresco”.
I may have to set up a wait list for anyone else interested as we try to figure out the venue and dates (though I’m guessing the best dates right now would be Friday, 11/10; Saturday 11/11; Friday, 11/17, Saturday, 11/18).
From my understanding, some people’s Novembers are a little up in the air, so it may make sense to lock down dates closer to November (maybe later this month). But, let me know which dates work best for you around that time period if you have a good idea what your availability will be. I will try to schedule so that we can get everyone who expressed interest on this thread together.
Perhaps for the inaugural Barbaresco dinner, we can start with “Bring An Interesting Barbaresco You Want to Share” just to make it easier for everyone. Maybe we can work in some cru battles if the chips fall in the right way.
Possibly no for 11/10, there is supposedly a Santa Cruz Mountain Cabernets dinner that night but the organization won’t announce details until mid October.
No 11/1-11/5, Big Sur Food and Wine. No 11/8, Kishi Bashi tickets.
Let’s do a tentative soft-hold for Saturday, 11/11 (assuming George you will be ok with back to back wine dinners if the Santa Cruz dinner happens).
Richard and Vince, can you let us know if Saturday, 11/11 will work for you as well (though I know you both might not know until closer to October).
Yao, do you think Mathilde would be willing to accommodate us again? When do you think we would need to solidify the date for them? I want to hold off as far as possible to give Richard and Vince some flexibility on their availability.