The Auswine Forum

PaulG wrote:Apparently my friend at Glaze is quite enthusiastic - When I emailed him to tell him that this wouldn't work due to it being a public holiday, he wrote back saying he'd open just for us!

Anyway, the ball is squarely in your court guys, just thought I'd give the option

If your friend is that enthusiastic, I'll throw it back in your court then.

You know the sort of parameters were looking at to negotiate for - a set menu (to bring the cost down) including corkage to suit cool-climate wines with a ceiling of $50-60/person.

Browsing over the menu again, my picks for a three-course meal to suit the wines would be:

Entrée: Tasmanian smoked salmon stack (to suit whites)
Main: Duck Breast, double baked wrapped in proscuito (to match Pinots)
Cheese Plate, 3 cheese’s, lavoush (matched to Cabernets/VP)

If he's willing to negotiate a menu like that including all corkage in those parameters I'm interested.

Cheers,
Ian

No problem - I'll email him and report back as soon as possible

Email has been sent, but so I can make sure he has all the facts: How many people normally attend something like this?

I think I said 10 to 15 when I spoke to him last... Is that accurate?

PaulG wrote:Email has been sent, but so I can make sure he has all the facts: How many people normally attend something like this?

I think I said 10 to 15 when I spoke to him last... Is that accurate?

At last count about 11 on the forum have expressed an interest in going, so I reckon your 10-15 estimate could be close. I think there could be a few more who'll decide about a week out - that's the tricky thing with Public Holiday weekends, some decide it's a good time to be out of town...

Cheers,
Ian

Okay: Good news is that he said "fine" when I asked for the suggested package for $50/person

Bad: My last menu update link was wrong, so please see amended menu link which *should* work:
http://www.mediafire.com/?d7nx64kzoa2

The only major change is that the tasmanian salmon stack isn't available any more. He suggested the Salt & Pepper Squid instead.

Let me know thoughts as to whether you want me to give him the go-ahead

P

PaulG wrote:Okay: Good news is that he said "fine" when I asked for the suggested package for $50/person

Bad: My last menu update link was wrong, so please see amended menu link which *should* work:
http://www.mediafire.com/?d7nx64kzoa2

The only major change is that the tasmanian salmon stack isn't available any more. He suggested the Salt & Pepper Squid instead.

Let me know thoughts as to whether you want me to give him the go-ahead

P

Looks good to me - if nobody else has any objections, I'd say go ahead with the booking.

By the way, well done and thank you for taking the initiative to find and negotiate with a venue - I've been very busy these last few weeks (and will continue to be up to this offline), so it's nice to be able to let someone else phone around and make the arrangements for this one.

Cheers,
Ian

Great! Confirmed
We just need to provide numbers closer to the time.

My pleasure to have organised it! Hopefully my efforts will make up for the fact that, chances are, the bottle I (and my partner) bring wont be up to the standard of the rest of the attendees!!

Just make sure n4sir stays away from the insane donkey afterwards!

PaulG wrote:Great! Confirmed
We just need to provide numbers closer to the time.

My pleasure to have organised it! Hopefully my efforts will make up for the fact that, chances are, the bottle I (and my partner) bring wont be up to the standard of the rest of the attendees!!

Hey

What you bring will be just fine

and

you'll get to try all the stuff we bring!

Sounds fair!

John #11 wrote:Just make sure n4sir stays away from the insane donkey afterwards!

They don't do BYO.


I'll get an email out in the next couple of days to those not regularly on the forum who've expressed an interest in going. We'll try and get a firm number of who's going the Friday before the long weekend - sound okay Paul?

At the moment we've got:

Taswegian
John#11 & Sue
Wayno
Gavin Trott
Maximus (maybe +2)
PaulG +1
ChrisV
n4sir


Lots of new faces and a new venue - didn't somebody mention something about a "virgin sacrifice" offline.


Cheers,
Ian

n4sir wrote:We'll try and get a firm number of who's going the Friday before the long weekend - sound okay Paul?

Should be fine. I've emailed Simon (the chef/owner) to double check when he needs numbers by, and if there's any issue with this I'll post back

I'm really looking forward to this, I have to admit, granted seeing as I recommended the venue, I may just spend the night feeling anxious as to whether everyone will like it!

Okay, just got the response from Simon - he says he would like 3 days notice, so we'll need final numbers by COB on the Friday - Perfect!

As well as being rather busy, my ISP email accounts (both work & home) have had problems and been on & off all week. They're working at the moment, so I'll just let you know I finally got that email out to those interested who aren't on the forum.

Have we settled on a start time yet? I think we'll need an early start since a few of us are working the following day, although 6pm last time was a bit ambitious - say people to get there for a 7pm start time?

Also what's the position with glassware - I normally BYO so I've got 3-4 to spread out my consumption during the night and to let some of the wines breathe a bit, but some on the forum prefer not to take them (where possible) and our visitors will need glasses for the night.

I reckon pretty soon we should start mentioning what we're taking too.

Cheers,
Ian

Not a problem - I'll email Simon. So what we want to know is if he has lots and lots of wine glasses? Should I be asking for any specific type of glass?

In terms of what wines we're bringing, I'm happy to be guided as to what I should bring but was thinking of bringing:

1. Lazy Ballerina Shiraz Viognier
2. Will Taylor Pinot Noir (if I can get one in time!)

Otherwise I might have to have a further peek through my collection!

Sue and I have decided to miss out on this one.

Sorry chaps.

Unfortunately Pam and myself cannot make it this time.

Many apologies also - travel plans for the long weekend (and one) have now been arranged as I guessed they could have been - I will have to save my virgin sacrifice arrangements for the next one. (Hopefully a Friday night too).

John #11 wrote:Sue and I have decided to miss out on this one.

Sorry chaps.

David wrote:Unfortunately Pam and myself cannot make it this time.

Wayno wrote:Many apologies also - travel plans for the long weekend (and one) have now been arranged as I guessed they could have been - I will have to save my virgin sacrifice arrangements for the next one. (Hopefully a Friday night too).

Sorry to hear that guys - I guess the long weekend was going to predictably rule a few people out because of travel plans. So far I have only the one extra that's emailed me back to date, so we could be down to 11-14 people:

Taswegian
Gavin Trott
Maximus (maybe +2)
PaulG +1
n4sir +1-2
Scanlon +1
welch +1

PaulG wrote:In terms of what wines we're bringing, I'm happy to be guided as to what I should bring but was thinking of bringing:

1. Lazy Ballerina Shiraz Viognier
2. Will Taylor Pinot Noir (if I can get one in time!)

Otherwise I might have to have a further peek through my collection!

At the risk of sounding a bit snobby Paul, I don't think the Lazy Ballerina SV is really a suitable wine to bring. These guys from over the water are talking about bringing some very high quality & rarely seen labels, and I don't think it will match any of the courses particularly well either.

I'm looking at taking a either a high quality Pinot (either a Phi or 2005 Burgundy, probably one of the 1er Cru Beaunes which should be more approachable and a fair contest to the Tassies/Kiwis) or cabernet blend (to be determined), and a 2003 Jeanneret Clare Riesling which should match the Salt & Pepper squid.

Cheers,
Ian

oooh I thought I wouldn't be able to make this one, but looks like I can.

Please count me +1

I will most likely bring late late disgorged jansz i had intented for the last offline.

Will have to ponder the other option!

Scanlon wrote:oooh I thought I wouldn't be able to make this one, but looks like I can.

Please count me +1

I will most likely bring late late disgorged jansz i had intented for the last offline.

Will have to ponder the other option!

Count adjusted.

Phew - was getting worried we would have fewer than 10, and I'd feel bad about making Simon open the restaurant for us!

Fair call on the LB. I'll stop by East End Cellars and see if I can pick up something more appropriate. Unfortunately, however, budget is a bit of a killer at the moment. I don't have anything overly appropriate in my cellar at the moment, and so I'm not too sure what I'll be able to afford at this stage.

Any suggestions are welcome

Now, did you still need me to ask Simon anything about the glasses situation?

Cheers,
P

Good lord. I post I might come while half cut and I wind up on the list

Won't be able to make it sorry, other commitments have sprung up. Have fun.

ChrisV wrote:Good lord. I post I might come while half cut and I wind up on the list

Won't be able to make it sorry, other commitments have sprung up. Have fun.

Okay then, you're off it now.

PaulG wrote:Phew - was getting worried we would have fewer than 10, and I'd feel bad about making Simon open the restaurant for us!

Fair call on the LB. I'll stop by East End Cellars and see if I can pick up something more appropriate. Unfortunately, however, budget is a bit of a killer at the moment. I don't have anything overly appropriate in my cellar at the moment, and so I'm not too sure what I'll be able to afford at this stage.

Any suggestions are welcome

Now, did you still need me to ask Simon anything about the glasses situation?

Cheers,
P

It's worth checking up on the glass situation at least for our interstate/overseas visitors - I've supplied glasses in the past for two visitors, but four is stretching things too far. Going on previous occasions I'd suggest they'd require at least two glasses each.

With the wine, it may pay to wait and see what other people are bringing to see if you can find something to compare them to and/or match one of the dishes where the selection is missing somethinig.

A lot of what you choose will depend on whether you can get the Will Taylor Pinot Noir - if not you could look at pooling the money for this and the LB and just buy the one bottle to impress (we're never short of wine at these things). Otherwise how about a white as a second wine? Something like the 2007 Kilikanoon Reserve Riesling that took out the Advertiser Hyatt best wine Trophy will be an interesting comparison to my aged Jeanneret, and it also goes with the salt & pepper squid.

Cheers,
Ian

Thanks for the suggestions
I just got a note saying there will be a bottle of the WT Pinot on my desk at work tomorrow, which is good news He's giving me a 2002, so hopefully it'll be nice!

I'll see what else I can bring along too

Once we have firmed up numbers, I'll ask about the glasses - any word on whether Maximus is bringing his +2?

Cheers,
P

Catherine and I will be there, assuming there's still space. Thanks.

Sean

welch wrote:Catherine and I will be there, assuming there's still space. Thanks.

Sean

There's room - I'm glad you both can make it Sean.

I may have another +1 too.

Cheers,
Ian

Am very much looking forward to this. Count me in for a Pirie Reserve PN 05, and a cab sav blend of some description(undisclosed).
Cheers,
Piers

Well, I went to the bottle store intending to buy the Killikanoon Riesling, but whilst there discovered:
1. They didn't have any at the store I went to; and
2. I really liked one of the Pinot's they had available for tasting:

It's a 2006 Nobilo Icon Pinot Gris.

I really enjoyed it - I hope it's appropriate for the evening. Let me know if it's not and I'll keep it for myself

Simon has assured me there will be plenty of wine glasses

With just over two days to confirm the booking, it's time this got bumped back up again and we started discussing more about what we're bringing. I was intending to take either A Phi Pinot Noir or 2005 1er Cru Beaune Rouge, but my local talked me into buying an 05 Curly Flat Macedon PN because he thought the others wouldn't be ready - I dunno though, I'm still tempted to take along the burg instead:

Taswegian - 05 Pirie Reserve PN, and a cab sav blend
Gavin Trott
Maximus (maybe +2)
PaulG +1 - 06 Nobilo Icon Pinot Gris, 02 Will Taylor Pinot Noir
n4sir +1-2 - 03 Jeanneret Riesling, 05 Curly Flat Macedon PN or Bruno Colin 1er Cru Santennay
Scanlon +1 - Jansz late disgorged & ?
welch +1

Cheers,
Ian