The Auswine Forum

a night of burgundy it is.

Burgundy Lovers
1 TiggerK (confirmed)
2 Red Smurf (confirmed)
3 Bob the Builder
4 Hacker
5 Maybs (confirmed)
6 Dave Vino
7 Len
8 Michael (confirmed)
9 Krusty (confirmed)
10 Rooman
11 polymer

Royal Waiting Room (now opening - we know people will drop out.
1 Odyessy

Venue is locked down as Le Mint. The address is 64 Riley St, Darlinghurst for 10. I've gone for the full degustation at $95 which means with corkage of $5 that is $100. Is everyone happy with that option? There was a smaller banquet at $45 if people would prefer.

I've also booked for 7pm. Again are people happy with 7pm or would people prefer a 6.30pm start?

Everything is fluid and open to suggestions.

Re the format, I've got a Puligny- Montrachet and a Corton Le Clos du Roi. Initially I'd thought to keep it to Cote de Nuit and as was pointed out the Corton is Beuane. Anyone got any suggestions re format?

I'm keen just in case it ends up being held before the 20th or after the 27th Jan, can't do in between and understand if I miss out. Prob prefer winter for Rhone but always enjoy these offlines so not complaining!

Happy to move to the next week if that helps.

Yep, I'm keen Mark
Bring on the Brett!

Keen too, please put me down Mark

That's good. I will start the list tomorrow. I was thinking I should have checked given it's February whether people would prefer Burgundy or Rhone? Im flexible, I'm just keen to try some new wines.

BURGUNDY!! Happy with either really, but I find good Rhone is well aged and/or fairly pricey so it's a rare beast for me to find great pleasure in. Burgundy on the other hand is mostly just fairly pricey, so easier to enjoy in it's youth... And it's much more Chardonnay or Pinot weather than Syrah or even high alc Rousanne/Marsanne.

Please count me in, and the burgundy option sounds good.

More than happy to go with Burgundy. I found some lovely 2006 grand cru in the cellar recently which I wasn't aware of so more than happy to share. Also have some 2002 Corton Le Roi I'd really like to taste. Rhone can wait for winter.

Red Smurf wrote:Yep, I'm keen Mark
Bring on the Brett!

red you happy with the change in theme?

rooman wrote:

Red Smurf wrote:Yep, I'm keen Mark
Bring on the Brett!

red you happy with the change in theme?

Well, it will be tough drinking all that Burgundy....but I'll manage.
The 02' Cortons should be good drinking.

Sounds awesome, count me in subject to date. Since Mark is organising I'm assuming Brown Sugar?

maybs wrote:Sounds awesome, count me in subject to date. Since Mark is organising I'm assuming Brown Sugar?

Whilst I think Brown Sugar is one of the best BYO in Sydney, unless I got the green light from people I was going to try and find another BYO closer to a train station.

Closer to a train station would be great thanks rooman! Brown Sugar was fun, food was excellent, service great, but location was tricky for many and it was rather cramped and noisy which made wine chat a bit difficult. If only we could find somewhere that ticks every box perfectly!!

1. BYO
2. Close to Transport
3. Good Food
4. Not too noisy or cramped
5. Friendly staff (enthusiastic about wine optional but preferred)
6. Reasonably priced
7. Not wanting to kick us out at 10pm.

Keep searching people! Bentley is really good and worth a look, but fails a bit on No.6, yet not super exxy if the wines are of a higher calibre.

if only Le Pelican survived

walked past the other day and the place is undergoing a pretty major refurb.
was a bit sad to see the greenery all gone from the front porch

So, what I am hearing Tigger is Golden Century

The decline of the BYO bistro is definitely a bummer. We just lost La Grand Bouffe near me, at Rozelle. Seems 95% of BYO places are cheap and cheerful Asian or pizza places.

Funny that I was also thinking Golden Century. The other Chinese option as Emperors Garden next door. As an alternative we could try Vietnamese say Nom La in Surry Hills or Xage

Doing some research today on non Asian, I was wondering about the Devonshire and the Book Kitchen in Surry Hills and Osteria Riva in Bondi Junction. Finally I know the head chef at Apollo and was thinking of giving him a call.

Put Lauren and myself down as tentative please, could be overseas....

The Devonshire last time I went was very nice, service was very good too.

If this gets in before the 22nd, I'd be in .

GC really is a good choice..ticks all of the boxes..
Centrally located
Good food
Not too expensive
Reasonable BYO
open till late
A big table can fit a normal size offline...it can be a bit noisy but I think the circular tables also make it easier to talk with more people...

And it has the advantage of being walking distance to fried chicken later on..

Polymer wrote:If this gets in before the 22nd, I'd be in .

GC really is a good choice..ticks all of the boxes..
Centrally located
Good food
Not too expensive
Reasonable BYO
open till late
A big table can fit a normal size offline...it can be a bit noisy but I think the circular tables also make it easier to talk with more people...

And it has the advantage of being walking distance to fried chicken later on..

I'm assuming you mean 22 Feb? I was thinking the first week of Feb so this should work

Yeah I know we go there a bit but that's really because it suits our needs. I like being able to order food as we go to suit the wines and just graze. Plus Chinese suits Chardonnay and Pinot.

But I'm easy. Either way I'm in. There has to be alternative options around central/glebe/pyrmont? I just don't get out enough.

Sorry Mark, I meant Jan 22...

Jealous of you guys....haven't been getting my offline fix here in Switzerland and I miss it...

Polymer wrote:Sorry Mark, I meant Jan 22...

Jealous of you guys....haven't been getting my offline fix here in Switzerland and I miss it...

Well I suppose you could always join us by Skype

Keen to join in, plus might have a +1...if those final spots are still available.

Won't be attempting to join you guys this time, just think it's an excellent theme. A few of us have had five great off-lines in Melbourne this year looking at several Burgundy themes eg year vs year, nth vs sth, communes etc, etc. We generally stuck with 1er Cru, although had a wonderful Grand Cru Tasting to finish the year two weeks ago. I found it very educational to get back into Burgundy after many years absence from when I was living in London in the early 80's. Great stuff. If only we could make wines like this in Oz!

Enjoy the night

mjs wrote:Won't be attempting to join you guys this time, just think it's an excellent theme. A few of us have had five great off-lines in Melbourne this year looking at several Burgundy themes eg year vs year, nth vs sth, communes etc, etc. We generally stuck with 1er Cru, although had a wonderful Grand Cru Tasting to finish the year two weeks ago. I found it very educational to get back into Burgundy after many years absence from when I was living in London in the early 80's. Great stuff. If only we could make wines like this in Oz!

Enjoy the night

Are people interested in a theme for the Sydney offline? Happy to go with suggestions either 1er Cru and above or Cote D'or v Cote de Beaune? I need to check but I think the wine was going to dig out is a Corton Le Roi '02 or '05 (can't recall which)

Mark

Up to you Mark! 1er or above probably raises the bar nicely enough, without excluding some with a GC theme?

C-D-Nuits vs Beaune isn't a fair fight. (I assume you meant Nuits, not d'Or which includes Beaune)

TiggerK wrote:Up to you Mark! 1er or above probably raises the bar nicely enough, without excluding some with a GC theme?

C-D-Nuits vs Beaune isn't a fair fight.

Happy to suggest we keep it 1st and above. I'm not sure I've even got any Beaune. It is interesting to see which way people's preferences go within the Cote de Nuits. I've always veered towards wines from Vosne Romaine which a friend pointed out at the chewy tannin end of the spectrum. None of those soft feminine Chambolle-Musigny in my cave.

I'm back in Sydney from the school holidays and need to get on and book the date and restaurant. Is everyone still good for Thursday 9 Feb?

Personally I've not done an offline with Chinese so I was thinking Golden Century unless people object failing that we would do the Devonshire which is just up from Central.

Hacker I assume you're bringing the Dujac you posted the other day?

Cheers
Mark

rooman wrote:

TiggerK wrote:Up to you Mark! 1er or above probably raises the bar nicely enough, without excluding some with a GC theme?

C-D-Nuits vs Beaune isn't a fair fight.

Happy to suggest we keep it 1st and above. I'm not sure I've even got any Beaune. It is interesting to see which way people's preferences go within the Cote de Nuits. I've always veered towards wines from Vosne Romaine which a friend pointed out at the chewy tannin end of the spectrum. None of those soft feminine Chambolle-Musigny in my cave.

If you like chewy tannins you'll probably like Beaunes vs. Nuits...the Corton you mentioned is a Beaune.

Vosne Romaneee I think has very fine tannins vs. the big chunky very Cab like tannins Beaune has...Definitely more than Chambolle but far more elegant than Beaune. But everyone feels tannins differently...like for me I think Barolos have a lot of tannins but they're quite fine so they don't feel as confronting...but other people feel they are...

Looking forward to reading about this in a couple of weeks .