The Auswine Forum

For some time now I and a fellow dedicated wine drinking and cellaring friend have wanted to open a number of rare and serious wines from our cellars. We wanted to share them with some other wine loving people who are prepared to come on an evening journey into wine and share the cost of these wines with us.

Our idea was to open these wines among a small group of 8 people in total. There would be 4 to 5 seats available at the table. The wines would be served alongside a specially prepared degustation menu by the head chef at a select Sydney restaurant. Each course would be matched to each one of the wines being served. The dinner would take place in a private dining room at the selected restaurant.

We hoped this would be a chance to make some new friends who share the same passion we do for great and rare wines and share the cost in opening some great and rare bottles of wine. There would be a total of 10 wines and 8 courses of food with 2 particular wines being served either on their own or with an additional cheese course?

The wines are currently stored in a temperature and humidity controlled environment and all have been properly cellared over their life span to the best of our knowledge. At this point we are interested to see if anyone from this forum and your friends/partners would be interested in attending based on the wines listed below and the cost per person. It is important to note that all wines are in excellent overall condition. If we decide to go ahead with the dinner then i would be happy to provide a detailed condition for each bottle if requested by anyone considering attending.


The Wines:

1976 Pol Roger Blanc De Blanc De Reserva, Champagne, France.

1988 Krug Vintage Brut, Champagne, France.

1979 Leo Buring, DW 116, Riesling, SA

1995 Leeuwin Art Series, Chardonnay, WA

1982 Wynn's, John Riddoch, Cabernet Sauvignon, SA

1990 Penfolds, 707, Cabernet Sauvignon, SA

1976 Penfolds, Grange Hermitage, Shiraz, SA

1966 Penfolds, Grange Hermitage, Shiraz, SA (Red wine clinic 2005)

1958 Seppelt, Bin CH16, Burgundy, Shiraz (Colin Preece wine)

All Saints, Grand Liqueur Tokay, Vic


The wines come to a total of $250 per person for 8 people in total or $25 per glass. The food has been estimated at between $100 and $140 per person by the restaurant in question. That is a total of $350- 400 per person.

I am interested in your feedback on our idea or responses to our invitation above?

RedVelvet,

Yes, Kerry and I would wish to attend. We like the format and the opportunity it presents to meet people with a similar interest in fine food and wine. My only suggestion would be to have some reserve bottles on standby and to increase the price for the cost of this 'hedging'.

As you can see from my recent posts, we have organised a dinner party at our home for later this month with an equivalent purpose.

If you can and would like to fit us in, please send me a private message and we'll take it from there.

Rgds,

John

Very nice indeed. I too, have had similar thoughts. RE: Collect and split between a group. Are you going to use a back up for each of the wines are simply run the gantlet?

Obvious dangers are corks and the cost hurdle. I think peoples ideas of what wines to include at such a grand tasting may differ, though your choices are certainly worthy.

As much as I’d love to join, given a very dodgy employment situation at the moment Id probably have to pass.

Love to hear the outcome and sounds like a truly great evening.

now if only you were doing this in perth

Wow great wines Shannon.

Should be a great night!

Let us all know...

daver6 wrote:now if only you were doing this in perth

Agree great idea

sounds good. I'm interested! I will take a quick trip from Canberra for that.

That sounds like an amazing idea! when were you planning to organize this for?

Softie wrote:RedVelvet,

Yes, Kerry and I would wish to attend. We like the format and the opportunity it presents to meet people with a similar interest in fine food and wine. My only suggestion would be to have some reserve bottles on standby and to increase the price for the cost of this 'hedging'.

As you can see from my recent posts, we have organised a dinner party at our home for later this month with an equivalent purpose.

If you can and would like to fit us in, please send me a private message and we'll take it from there.

Rgds,

John

Hi Softie/John,

I completely agree with having a few back up bottles just in case, and we could certainly bring a number of different back ups and even choose on the night based on what (if any) is corked. It would also allow us make a decision on the night as to how much more we spend based on the back up bottle we choose to open?

Yes i did see your dinner party that you have organised and unfortunately for me we missed out. That is the type of thing we do with our friends fairly regularly. Maybe next time.

I will certainly keep you up to date as we get this organised.

monghead wrote:Wow great wines Shannon.

Should be a great night!

Let us all know...

Hi Monghead,

I certainly will keep everyone up to date with this.

cheers

Sorry to all you people in Perth and else where who would have liked to attend. I did originally fail to mention it would be in Sydney.... oops.

As for a date we have not decided when to do this as yet. We were just seeing would be interested in attending at this stage. If we can fill the 8 seats between our current friends and new friends from the Auswine forum Probably sometime in Late July?

This should allow ample time to prepare for the evening.

Thank you to everyone who has responded to my post so far.

Cheers
Shannon

RedVelvet wrote:Sorry to all you people in Perth and else where who would have liked to attend. I did originally fail to mention it would be in Sydney.... oops.

As for a date we have not decided when to do this as yet. We were just seeing would be interested in attending at this stage. If we can fill the 8 seats between our current friends and new friends from the Auswine forum Probably sometime in Late July?

This should allow ample time to prepare for the evening.

Thank you to everyone who has responded to my post so far.

Cheers
Shannon

The suggested date for this dinner is Friday 7th August? Please PM me with your availability for this date if you would like to attend.

Condition reports for the bottles suggested for this dinner now they have been located in our cellars are as follows:

1976 Pol Roger Blanc De Blanc De Reserva, Champagne, France.

Excellent overall condition with a perfect level.

1988 Krug Vintage Brut, Champagne, France.

Excellent overall condition with a perfect level.

1979 Leo Buring, DW 116, Riesling, SA

Excellent overall condition with level 4cm from cork.

1995 Leeuwin Art Series, Chardonnay, WA

Excellent overall condition with a perfect level.

1982 Wynn's, John Riddoch, Cabernet Sauvignon, SA

Excellent Condition with level at base of neck.

1990 Penfolds, 707, Cabernet Sauvignon, SA

Excellent overall condition with perfect level.

1976 Penfolds, Grange Hermitage, Shiraz, SA

Cellar stained label, perfect capsule with no visible leakage,
level is base of neck.

1966 Penfolds, Grange Hermitage, Shiraz, SA (Red wine clinic 1998)

Cellar stained label, Red Wine clinic 1998, perfect capsule and level.
(not RWC 2003 as first thought)

1958 Seppelt, Bin CH16, Burgundy, Shiraz (Colin Preece wine)

Unforunately the label is torn but vintage etc is still visible on the label, the level is 3 - 4cm from cork, the capsule is in very good overall condition with a few very small nicks around the top of the bottle.

All Saints, Grand Liqueur Tokay, Vic

Perfect Overall condition.


Some suggested back up wines include:

1997 Cullen Chardonnay
2000 Yattarna Chardonnay
1997/8/9 Grosset Polish Hill Riesling
1971/76 German Riesling's
1990 Yarra Yering Dry Red No 1 Cabernet
1996 Katnook Odyssey Cabernet
1984 Penfolds 707 (red wine clinic 2004)
1970 Penfolds St Henri
1990 Penfolds St Henri
1977 Penfolds Grange
1980 Penfolds Grange
1983 Penfolds Grange
2000 Wolf Blass Platinum label Shiraz

But to name a few of the options available.
Your thoughts?

Nup, those back-ups look sh*t, mate.

Wayno wrote:Nup, those back-ups look sh*t, mate.

Gee, two days before my birthday. (I should just about be sober again by then after this night!)

Thank you RedVelvet for organising such an aupicious occasion just for me!

John

Wayno wrote:Nup, those back-ups look sh*t, mate.

Wayno, let me know if you have any of those sh*t wines that you want to get rid of, i will come round and take them off your hands.... free of charge of course.....

Softie wrote:Gee, two days before my birthday. (I should just about be sober again by then after this night!)

Thank you RedVelvet for organising such an aupicious occasion just for me!

John

Perfect, a reason to celebrate!

Might have to make it a bit of a birthday celebration as well in that case.

RedVelvet wrote:

Wayno wrote:Nup, those back-ups look sh*t, mate.

Wayno, let me know if you have any of those sh*t wines that you want to get rid of, i will come round and take them off your hands.... free of charge of course.....

Touche.

Shannon,

Where are you thinking of holding the dinner?

Cheers,

Monghead.

Hello All,

The date has been confirmed as Friday 7th of August.

The Restaurant we chose for this event is Atelier in Glebe. I spoke to the wonderful Bernadette today and the booking has been confirmed for 8 people in Ateliers private dining room. I will be supplying a list of the wines to head chef (Darren) who will be in contact with me closer to the date to draw up the tasting menu based on the wines and seasonal produce.

Bernadette did suggest to me that they usually have two sweet courses in their tasting menu's so i will have a look in the cellar and add another worthy sweet wine to the list above if all attending are agreeable?

Restaurant Atelier
22 Glebe Point Rd
Glebe
http://restaurantatelier.com.au/ for anyone who may wish to check it out.

I think we'll have to back out of this one.

I hope it goes well. Some lovely wines there !

Cuttlefish

cuttlefish wrote:I think we'll have to back out of this one.

I hope it goes well. Some lovely wines there !

Cuttlefish

Backout???????

Cuttlefish you did not express an interest in attending and unfortunately the numbers are full.

Maybe next time

MESSAGE

An update of who is attending on the night and a few details:

Softie + Partner
Rooman
Redstuff
Dave vino
Gavin (non forum member)
Redvelvet + Partner

This totals 8 and all seats at the table are now full.

Just to re-confirm some details:

The wine will be $250 per person for the original list above. If on the night we have any dead bottles we will have backups on hand including duplicates of some of those above. On the night we will make a decision around the table as to what back up/s to open (if any) and split their cost by the number of attendee's.

I know one or two people have suggested bringing along a bottle to share with all on the night or to get things started. This i believe is at their own expense and out of their own kindness. I am sure their will be a few surprises on the night and i know i am very much looking forward to meeting you all and sharing some wonderful and rare wines.

I should mention that Restaurant Atelier have the list of wines along with tasting notes that i have put together from various sources. Darren and Bernadette are currently preparing a special purpose built degustation to accompany these wines at $140 per person.

In view of the quality of wines being tasted one thing that has not been mentioned or discussed is glass ware? I know Atelier have Spigelau glasses for our use. Is anyone thinking of bringing their own glassware?

RedVelvet wrote:

cuttlefish wrote:I think we'll have to back out of this one.

I hope it goes well. Some lovely wines there !

Cuttlefish

Backout???????

Cuttlefish you did not express an interest in attending and unfortunately the numbers are full.

Maybe next time

Erm...yeah...dunno what happened there. Must have got my wires crossed...

RedVelvet,

This will be great; yes we are 2. The Atelier glassware is fine by us.

John

Benchmark tasting guys, don't rub it in...........
.
It shall be exceptional, can't wait to hear the details.

It may be just me, but personally I find something not quite right about charging people at a dinner for bottles of wine you have already purchased and cellared and planned to drink.

It would be different if this was a group purchase from auction, or winery cellars or whatever, where people agree upfront to chip in and buy wines for a dinner, but this other way just seems to rub me up as ungenerous.

Why not just have people pay for food and contribute the wines as personal contributions?