The Auswine Forum

The hangover's only just worn off after Christmas/New Years and Australia Day is just around the corner, but it's already time we started talking about the first Adelaide offline for 2008, probably for sometime next month.

Like last year I was thinking something cheap & Chinese to begin with like T-Chow, Ying Chow or Cafe Kowloon again. With the warmer weather it's probably more suited to lighter reds, so maybe we can finally go with that Pinot/Duck theme that's been on the drawing board a while?

At this stage we're just talking about possible numbers of who's going and dates to have it - I'd avoid the week of the 7th February because that's Chinese New Year and it's bound to be busy.

Cheers,
Ian

hmmm, the thought of duck, and tasting 10-20 pinots is making my mouth water.....

If we're going for duck, we should seriously consider a place on glen osmond rd called 'rice' which has the most amazing peking duck i have had.

We would need to book as it's a pretty busy place, but i'm sure they do BYO. possibly a middle of the week might be better, and hopefully force us to cut down on the massive number of bottles we each bring.

Rice is pretty good - I've been there a few times and I'm pretty sure they do BYO, too.

As usual, lock me in unless I say otherwise The weekend of February 9 is no good for me (I have to drive to bloody Millicent on the Saturday morning!) but I guess that ties in with avoiding the week of the 7th.

Pinot and duck sounds good! Unless we're talking end of February, most dates will suit me (I'm getting some wine interested frineds over from Norway second week in Feb that I might bring if it's OK).


cheers
Gustav

Ian, you're an offline junkie! Great suggestion with the Pinot. Weekend of 15th is not good for me, I'll be over in the Yarra Valley (tasting Pinots!). but otherwise count me in.

Cheers,

Mark

Mmmm Pinot.......

I urge you guys to procure a bottle of the 2006 Escarpment for your offline.

Wifey and I really enjoyed this recently.

Cheers,

Monghead.

This is promising - looks like we've already settled on a theme, venue, and (by default) week for this one.

I'm happy to try Rice as a new venue - does anyone know the cost of corkage (if any)?

With the dates people can't attend above, that leaves us the week of the 18th-23rd February by process of elimination. I'd be flexible enough to probably go during the week, although I'd still prefer Friday the 22nd or Saturday the 23rd.

Cheers,
Ian

One of the people in the office is going there for dinner tonight so I'll try to find out about corkage.

Friday 22nd is the opening night of the Fringe

Nayan wrote:Friday 22nd is the opening night of the Fringe

Oh crap, I forgot about that.

Maybe it will have to be on a weeknight then - at least Steve should have less trouble getting a taxi!

Haha, so true!

I shouldn't have a problem getting to Rice, though - it's less than a ten minute drive away...!

Knowing your luck, Steve, you'll end up in Glenelg, have an argument with the taxi driver and end up being banned...AGAIN!

If it's during the week I'm keen Wednesday, Thursday or Friday (I get back from the Yarra Tuesday).

Cheers,

Mark

silkwood wrote:Knowing your luck, Steve, you'll end up in Glenelg, have an argument with the taxi driver and end up being banned...AGAIN!

If it's during the week I'm keen Wednesday, Thursday or Friday (I get back from the Yarra Tuesday).

Cheers,

Mark

I can't afford to be banned from the only other useful taxi company in town... this time if the taxi arrives two and a half hours late I'm going to get in it and not argue with them!

Corkage at Rice is $8/bottle, but I don't know about discounts for a large number of bottles.

Steve wrote:Corkage at Rice is $8/bottle, but I don't know about discounts for a large number of bottles.

While $8/bottle is hardly excessive (at least it's not $50 ) it's still a fair bit more compared to $1.50/person we get at the Chows & Co in town. I'd rather go back to Gouger Street and use the extra coin on additional dishes and/or better quality Pinots.

Cheers,
Ian

Yeah, I agree. $1.50 is unheard of!

but the duck at rice is so good!

Scanlon wrote:but the duck at rice is so good!

The Peking duck would have to be, as for the same money (by the time the corkage for say 10 people kicks in) we could have an additional four or so duck dishes somewhere in Gouger Street (that could possibly be just as good).

Sorry folks, but that's the Accountant in me coming out.

mmmmkay.... perhaps we should go to primo then?

Scanlon wrote:mmmmkay.... perhaps we should go to primo then?

Primo don't do Peking duck.

In all seriousness it's time we started settling on a venue & date, and get an idea of who it suits or otherwise.

It looks like it will have to be sometime the week of 18th-23rd February otherwise it will have to be put back another month. If people don't mind the clash with the Fringe opening weekend it could be on the Friday/Saturday, or say the previous Wednesday/Thursday if we can get enough still interested.

Sarah's dead set keen on Rice at Parkside and Steve's heard good reports - I'd rather a venue in Gouger Street which could end up being up a lot cheaper if we end up with a lot of bottles again (you all know what we're like, so expect the excessive).

It's also about time we heard from a few of the usual suspects like Gavin, Shadrach, Nick, Jordan, Mark, Chris, etc to see if they'll possibly make an appearance and if they have any preferences above, so speak up people.

Cheers,
Ian

My vote is still rice, and i'm sure we could organise a deal for midweek (not me though, i'm a terrible bargain driver!).
Mid week will keep down the number of bottles anyway.

But whatever the crowd decides...

I vote for Gouger Street
I also vote for a 1 bottle per person limit if it is midweek.

I vote Gouger St. and I second the idea of one bottle per person (does this include stickies though? ).

Cheers,

Mark

I still think stick to one bottle each

I was just thinking - I wonder how much $$ it costs us to be leaving all that leftover wine at the restaurant? Cheap corkage or not, the cost has to be outweighed by the amount of wastage.

Scanlon wrote:I still think stick to one bottle each

I was just thinking - I wonder how much $$ it costs us to be leaving all that leftover wine at the restaurant? Cheap corkage or not, the cost has to be outweighed by the amount of wastage.

If a restaurant is good enough to offer a deal with little corkage (or none at all) it's common courtesy to leave a little behind for the owners/staff to have a taste.

That said, even with two bottles/person we don't tend to leave much behind - at the last offline at Soho there was only about a glass left in each bottle (if that) except for the 1995 Burgundy (corked), 1999 La Testa (crap) and 1981 Rieussec (one that was actually too much of a good thing). It's actually quite a small price to pay really when you think about it.

Cheers,
Ian

Ps. As Gustav has mentioned, it doesn't hurt to have four glasses on the table to use either - this usually means you don't have to tip wine out you don't want to and have more time to let it breathe and drink it.

Pam and myself will be there.

Vote Gouger st.

I'm keen for Gouger street. Rice is pretty damn good, but it's just not the same...!

I don't know much about decent pinot and I don't have any, but I'll do some investigation and some purchasing and I'll see what I can do

Sorry Sarah, but it looks like you've been out-voted on this one - Gouger St it is.

I'll try and make a booking at T Chow this week - does everyone have a preferred day? To avoid clashing with the opening day of the fringe Friday the 22nd would be out - that would leave the Saturday the 23rd (as long as people haven't already committed to Fringe events) or the Wednesday or Thursday before.

Updated list of who's interested:

Scanlon
Steve
John#11 +1
David & Pam
silkwood
Gustav (+1-3?)
n4sir
ck (maybe)

Cheers,
Ian

This sounds good. I've just returned from NSW and am looking forward to a Gouger St. offline. I can get to the Saturday night and will start thinking about some interesting pinot and perhaps something to act as a bit of a counterpoint to all the cherry and strawberry pinot flavours.
regards chris

ck wrote:This sounds good. I've just returned from NSW and am looking forward to a Gouger St. offline. I can get to the Saturday night and will start thinking about some interesting pinot and perhaps something to act as a bit of a counterpoint to all the cherry and strawberry pinot flavours.
regards chris

It will be good to see you there again Chris if Saturday's the go.