The Auswine Forum

bacchaebabe wrote:Hmmm, might BYO glasses then. Two is not going to be enough - never is.

At $7 corkage per bottle, I would have thought they could do a bit better than that - especially given we'll be opening most of the bottles ourselves, doing all the pouring and now rinsing glasses too.

Be happier with a flat corkage per head given we're getting flat glasses per head!

Kris,

Normally the restaurant doesn't do BYO on Saturday night under any circumstances but they were kind enough to do it for us.

It was originally $10 a bottle corkage but I negotiated that down to seven.

This restaurant is full every Friday and Saturday night, and frequently during the week for that matter, so it's not like they are desperate for our business.

I understand we will have a room to ourselves, and there is normally a surcharge for the room, but they have waived that too.

All in all, it's not a bad deal.

TORB wrote:I understand we will have a room to ourselves, and there is normally a surcharge for the room, but they have waived that too.

No that's just being sensible, you and I have been there before and they can probably imagine a whole horde like us. In fact they are probably having nightmares in anticipation.

Hi all,

Here is the menu for the offline. All the non-attendees, read it and slobber!

*Barramundi poached in red wine w/ mushroom crust, king brown mushrooms and beurre rouge

*Hot Lavender-smoked quail w/ ginger peaches, micro cress and master stock

*Slow roasted wagyu rump, parmentier potatoes, broad bean paste and mustard jus

*Duck leg confit, maple eschalots and asparagus.

* Cumin scented lamb loin, pilaf rice, eggplant, tomato and mint pesto.

* Roquefort, gratte paille and goat cheese w/ lavosh and autumn fruit
compote

I will assign you all a course for the second wine by either PM or for those that I have emails for, by email.

With regard to start time, they want us there at 6.30pm on Saturday as we have a bit to get through.

Regards

Finney (Craig)

Hi all,

OK, so what wines with which courses, this was a challenge but think that we have sorted it out (Thanks Brian!)

> Barra - 88 Lawsons
> Quail - 94 Lakes Folly
> Wagyu Rump - 94 Wynns Michael
> Duck - 91 Petaluma
> Lamb - 98 Rockford BB

We can always change on the fly if we think it won't work once the dishes arrive.

Hopefully this will help you all when assigning your masked wine.

Cya Saturday

Finney (Craig)

Hi all,

Last update before the Saturday Night:

*Starts from 6.30pm
*Eschalot would prefer cash on the night for payment

That's about it

Cya there

Finney (Craig)

Hey All,

Should we pre-prepare our options bastardry questions ? How many do you suggest we do for each wine?

Glen

GRB wrote:Hey All,

Should we pre-prepare our options bastardry questions ? How many do you suggest we do for each wine?

Glen

Yeah, it's a good idea to know the details of the wine you are bringing, it's embarrasing to have to take the sock off to check the back label half way through. (I know I've had to do it)

Typical options are 3 each for vintage, variety/blend, origin by hemisphere, country, state, region, winery etc., not necessarily in that order. Four options for each if you really want to be a bastard.

The questions for the first wine because you will need advance warning to work this wine out

Is it a Sparkling Shiraz, is it FRS, or if you are blind and have no taste, is it Champagne.?

Question 2.

Is it Shiraz, is it Syrah or it is Shar-don-ay?

Question 3.

Is it from SA, South Aust or South Oz?

Question 4.

Given the shap of the bottle that is impossible to hide, is it
Primo Estate Joseph, Rockford Black Shiraz or Penfolds Grange Sparkling Black Duck?


...... or have I added soda water to GRB's bottles of 02 Black pepper Shiraz!

I didn't know Penfolds made a sparkling black duck shardonay Shampoo you are making the questions just to damn hard

Red Bigot wrote:Ok, I'll jump in first with a 91 Petaluma Coonawarra, nicely in it's drinking window and would suit a lighter early course in the dinner.

Hey Brian,

Have you had the Petaluma Coonawarra 1991 recently? I had a bottle last year and I hope for your sake it was not typical because it was completely dried out, tasting all of old leather and well.......old leather! Hope yours is better than mine was, good luck and have a great dinner.

lantana

lantana wrote:

Red Bigot wrote:Ok, I'll jump in first with a 91 Petaluma Coonawarra, nicely in it's drinking window and would suit a lighter early course in the dinner.

Hey Brian,

Have you had the Petaluma Coonawarra 1991 recently? I had a bottle last year and I hope for your sake it was not typical because it was completely dried out, tasting all of old leather and well.......old leather! Hope yours is better than mine was, good luck and have a great dinner.

lantana

Stop trying to jinx me!

I tried one from the same batch in January and thought it was in fine form, drinking about at it's peak for my taste, should hold for a few more years, not dried out or leathery at all. It was based on that I chose it for this dinner. I always take a backup as well.

Red Bigot wrote:

lantana wrote:

Red Bigot wrote:Ok, I'll jump in first with a 91 Petaluma Coonawarra, nicely in it's drinking window and would suit a lighter early course in the dinner.

Hey Brian,

Have you had the Petaluma Coonawarra 1991 recently? I had a bottle last year and I hope for your sake it was not typical because it was completely dried out, tasting all of old leather and well.......old leather! Hope yours is better than mine was, good luck and have a great dinner.

lantana

Stop trying to jinx me!

I tried one from the same batch in January and thought it was in fine form, drinking about at it's peak for my taste, should hold for a few more years, not dried out or leathery at all. It was based on that I chose it for this dinner. I always take a backup as well.

Good luck, it would more likely be my bad luck than yours, my randox/tca chart is rating at over 15% for wines under cork in recent years

When are you guys going to stop talking about it an actually do this thing?

If you talk about it as much after the event as before it Gavin will run out of space.

Hi Davo,

Bugger talking about it afterwards, we will go into complete silence and you will be wondering how good it was!

Mmmmm, I can smell and taste the food & wine, it is sooo close...

Hey, why don't you book a flight and come on over, I am sure we can sqeeeeeeeze you in at the last minute? I'll even pick you up at the airport in the 1988 Toyota Corolla Limo! Don't mind the 400,000K's on the clock and blue smoke - luxury at it's finest!

Actually to be honest, I hope to have the Cruiser back from the smash repairs tomorrow or it will be the old shopping trolley Corolla! Then, I can park beside all the Mercs and BM's........They will be s%^&&ing themselves as I open the doors on the rust bucket!!!

Cheers

Finney (Craig)

lantana wrote:Good luck, it would more likely be my bad luck than yours, my randox/tca chart is rating at over 15% for wines under cork in recent years

Bugger! I think that's even higher than Ric's records indicate. I've had a bad week, the third corked bottle was opened tonight at Rock Salt, Tatachilla 96 Foundation Shiraz, you could see it was trying to show it had lasted the distance, but low-level TCA ruined it all. Luckily I had a backup, a cleanskin of Norman's Peacock 1998 Cabernet blend, a fine wine with a few years left in it yet, it even went well with the double-cooked duck and duck sausage.

Hi all,

Offline has been and gone. I would like to thank everyone for a great night! Julie and I had a wonderful time.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Option Games as did Ric with the Pinot and Frog reds.

Look forward to peoples TN's.

Regards

Finney (Craig)

Here's what we drank, Ric's doing the notes if he can understand what he mumbled into his little dictaphone gadget all night.



Thanks one and all for a great night and Tony for the great food.

All (most of) the pictures are here....
http://www.tagworld.com/RedBigot

Red Bigot wrote:Here's what we drank, Ric's doing the notes if he can understand what he mumbled into his little dictaphone gadget all night.



Thanks one and all for a great night and Tony for the great food.

All (most of) the pictures are here....
http://www.tagworld.com/RedBigot

I say Brian, fair crack of the whip. I thought only females lied about their age. 29
MM.

Muscat Mike wrote:

Red Bigot wrote:Here's what we drank, Ric's doing the notes if he can understand what he mumbled into his little dictaphone gadget all night.

Thanks one and all for a great night and Tony for the great food.

All (most of) the pictures are here....
http://www.tagworld.com/RedBigot

I say Brian, fair crack of the whip. I thought only females lied about their age. 29
MM.

The blondes I'm trying to attract can't multiply by 2 or count higher than 30. Besides it took to long to scroll down the list to the real year.

Looking forward to the TN's guys - even any vague recollections for that matter.

Cheers,
Ian

Guys, where are the notes?

We've all got real jobs and there were a LOT of wines. I'm still building up to it but whoever goes first, we should start a new thread.

Baby Chickpea wrote:Guys, where are the notes?

The build up to these notes is bigger than the build up to the dinner

lantana wrote:

Baby Chickpea wrote:Guys, where are the notes?

The build up to these notes is bigger than the build up to the dinner

I can tell you that the 91 Petaluma was in fine form, still a fair bit of tannin, but not drying out at all and certainly not leathery. It went well with the Barramundi poached in red wine, the fruit showing up sweetly with the food, just slightly better with the food than the more mature and earthy 88 Orlando Lawsons Shiraz I though, although a couple of others preferred them the other way around.

72 hours later and only a few lines from the Red Bigot thus far ...... oh well ...... beggars can't be choosers, I suppose ...... must have been a bigger night than anyone's letting on ........ or is this a case of good things come in time? ......

Hi all,

Well I can vouch that I saw several people writing notes and Ric talking into the dictaphone. As I was the organiser, I didn't take any notes, besides, I am not all that experienced at TN's anyway.

I must say that I have enjoyed wine for many years and know good wine. However I was very impressed with the knowledge of many of the people surrounding me and made me realise that I have plenty to learn about regional specifics of wine. Where can I get this information?

Brian, thanks for the pics....All we need now is the notes and someone to stand up and organise the next offline in the "Sydney" region.

Julie's favourite was the Mount Mary, for me there were several wines that could've easily taken WOTN. It really was a night of several excellent wines and great food.

Finney (Craig)