[img
][/img]
And not even any bread! 
neither are chinese nike sweatshops. tough choice…
That looks like a ton of fun.
I like the way two of the guys re-arranged their glasses
It does look like fun if the wines are good
But I’ve heard from more than one person what it is like to taste 40 overoaked Chardonnays
I understand the general point here, but without context, it’s hard for me to feel sorry for the lot pictured above. Maybe they’re drinking the greatest (real) DRC RC vintages of all time…
When I worked in retail, the crappy days were trying to pick out a <$10 pinotage that we could responsibly stock on the shelves. That wasn’t usually fun.
All the wines were supplied by Rudy, who had purchased the seat in the second row- middle.
Hey , I’m in this picture and it was a lot of fun : a vericale of La Tache
If it was that many years of La Tache, you know Rudy’s gotta be involved.
Actually I know the real story of this picture and will tell when I have time.
I’m trying to think of a way to have less fun with wine than that depicted in the photo and I’m having a hard time imagining one. I’m a wine drinker, not a taster. Fun with wine is a great dinner with great friends and great wines. From a simple roast chicken to a menu gastronomique at your former employer. But sitting alone at a sterile looking table with a bunch of wine glasses, with no social interaction or food, would be drudgery.
This is actually a tasting session of the Grand Jury Europeen of which I am a member . You taste a Bordeaux vintage over 4 or 5 sessions , usually in 2 to 3 hours or so . This is a blind tasting , the temperature of the wines is impeccable etc …A perfectly organized event , usually at a top chateau ( I think this was at Leoville Poyferre but I’m not sure ). You taste with some of Europe’s best known wine journalists and meet interesting people . The real fun part comes afterwards : dinners with those people where everybody brings rare bottles of wine and discuss … The tasting itself is hard work to be honest but really educational . I love it but could not do this on a daily basis .
What, I see no “Crazy Straws!!” - for assessing the palate without the nose of course
I’m with you completely but as Herwig beat me to the punch to explain, these are professionals doing a valuable job. The guy in the second row right is Bernard Berturchy, not only a great taster and wine writer for the major French newspaper, but also a professor of statistics at the University of Paris. He analyzes the results of these blind tastings into what may be the most reliable information on a given vintage.
Mark - I can’t agree with you at all. Those are 2 different events. The tasting shown would be for me a learning event. I do a lot of tastings like that and they’re intentionally very different from dinner with friends. Tastings like the one shown are where I’d take notes and evaluate the wine. That’s about learning and it’s just as much fun as simply enjoying wine with friends, albeit a different sort of fun.