Would like to organize a tasting of Yquems and a 95+ point wine dinner afterward.

Time frame would be around the middle to end of March.

The tasting would be held in my cellar in the early evening and then we could go to a local restaurant. I live in Los Gatos and there are several good wine-friendly restaurants nearby we could choose.

I am not sure on how to determine who could attend. I am sure there are three or four members that would/could bring a bottle of Yquem including myself. The question is if one doesn't have any Yquem one would have to bring a very nice (translate: expensive comp to Yquem) bottle for the dinner.

Am I being too crass? Does this work? It would be mui $$$ but hopefully would be a great tasting and a superior dinner.

Who might be interested? I need your help.

David and I talked about this and I thought that everyone bringing Yquem would be a bit much (IMHO). I.e. if there were 10 of us each with a bottle of Yquem..... So I suggested that some folks bringing Yquem and others bringing nice bottles of dry wine would be a good way to have the tasting (but if everyone wants to bring Yquem we can just pig out on Foie Gras and Blue Cheese

this idea is very appealing. while i have no dyquem to contribute, i can contribute an acceptable bottle or 2 of red. there will be logistical challenges for me, as is always the case, but i would like to be tentatively included. i will ask some general questions.

where in the south bay? (the further south the better, for me.)

are you thinking restaurant or someone's home?

when?

Boy, oh, boy... Would I LOVE to be able to participate in this. Sounds Great & very unique...

This is very intriguing, I would be “in” if it would be acceptable to bring, as skwid has suggested, something other than Yquem…

where is los gatos?

Just west of San Jose off of highway 880/17. It is pretty easy to get to from SF, San Jose, or Oakland. Lots of freeway access to it.

Gus, I'm thinking the Yquem tasting would be at my home and then off to a local restaurant for a nice wine dinner.

Gus and Eric, Of course we will need some good wines other than Yquem for dindin.

Right now I thinking of a fairly new restaurant called Manresa. It has received several good writeups and has been compared to French Laundry by the SF Chronicle, San Jose Mercury, and a Napa Valley TV show. I'm sure this is alot of puff. I've been there once for a wine dinner and it was excellent. My guess is it would be about $70 a head without wine. I can look into less expensive if a majority want.

If anyone does want to make a trip/vacation out of it Los Gatos/San Jose is about 50 miles south of San Francisco. The napa valley is about 90 miles to the north, and Monterey is about 60 miles to the south.
Our house is located in the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA and about 20 miles from Ridge Vineyard (except that 10 miles of Montebello Road is 15 MPH tops). I'm sure we could arrange for tastings at Ridge, Cooper Garrod, David Bruce and Testarossa. Could probably get at least one of the winery owners at the tasting too.

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Davidn, that sounds like a great choice - why go cheap when we are talking about a Yquem tasting after all

My only comment would be to make this for a Saturday night if possible, for those of us with a drive it would be really nice not to have to deal with 1) Friday traffic and 2) waking early the next morning.

Btw, my sister-in-law knows the chef at Manressa (David Kinch) so we could probably get a planned meal if we wanted to.

Eric, A Saturday night is fine. Only down side is it may limit us on a restaurant choice.

gentlemen,

i am currently scheduled to have the weekend of 08mar03 off, but this can be changed at this point. katy & i have been talking about a weekend in the bay area for quite some time & this seems like it should be an event to plan such a weekend around.

davidn, i understand the constraints that a saturday night might present, but it would definitely work better for me, since i would have sunday to recover before having to drive back to fresno & return to work monday morning. i have wanted to attend one of the bawe tastings since their inception & the scheduling of them on sundays is as big a factor as any other in precluding my attendance. i have eaten at the french laundry & would be most eager to try the restaurant you suggest if it is only 3 quarters as good as the fl.

Hmm, we haven't scheduled the March BAWE tasting yet, perhaps we could follow Saturday's dinner with a Sunday BAWE tasting while you are in town?

i like the way you're thinking, eric. have y'all decided on a theme for the march tasting. this sunday's tasting should be great & we really wanted to make this one, since katy is half chinese & was excited about the chinese new year theme. i was still trying to work out the logistics when i noticed the event was filled & capped . oh well.

I think we are going to pick up the Tempranillo theme for March, but will finalize the decision on Sunday. Bummer about this weekend, I hated having to cap it, but it was necessary out of respect to our host.

Btw, I'm unavailable on the first two weekends of March. So I won't be able to make it if either the weekend of the 1st or 8th is choosen. I can bring some Yquem if I can make it (and assorted other goodies depending on what else is happening).

I'm thinking we should put this off until April or May and have it somewhere in the East Bay or Napa Valley.

Comments?

That sounds good to me Davidn, skwid's gotta be there after all - it was his and your idea!

Davidn, I thought one of the ideas was to check out your cool cellar. Postponing it is fine with me.

davidn,

i liked your original idea better (worried about what the internet riff-raff might do to your home & cellar ), but i'll try to work out the logistics from my end regardless of the date or venue. if we postpone it, i still think sooner is better & i love los gatos. if we stick to march, i can still alter my schedule to accomodate squid's & we can choose, perhaps, the 3rd weekend of march.