I am putting together what promises to be a fantastic offline dinner at the Wine Cask in conjunction with their Wine Futures Tasting Program. The Wine Cask is arguably the finest restaurant in Santa Barbara. I am pretty good friends with the owner and he makes sure we have one hell of a nice dinner.

I am in the middle of picking a Menu right now. This one will not be cheap; probably somewhere between $110 and $125 per person. But I am very sure we can bring our own wines with no corkage charge. That makes the price a bargain imo.

I need to know who will attend. This year I will need a deposit check for $50 a person before February 28 to confirm your spot. This will not be refundable after March 10th if you reserve and then don't make it to the dinner. I can take cancellations up until that date. Once I give them a number I have to guarantee that number.

I promise you this will be one of the (if not the) finest and funnest offlines you will ever attend!

Who can come? Here's the list so far (I think):

1.2. Davidn and Trician
3.4. JonesWine and Mrs JonesWine
5.6. JonesWine's two guests
7.8. Mrs. Winetex and Mr. Winetex
9.10. Mr. and Mrs. Pete Marsh

Wines already committed.
Screaming Eagle
Marcassin Pinot Noir
Kistler Chardonnay, Cuvee Cathleen
Sine Qua Non Albino

and more; much more

I've got enough faith that I'm buying. I don't believe Axios would release a wine as poor as the post on eBob would indicate.

The aroma wheel is a good resource for organizing and describing your impressions of a wine. There wasn't a "Sometimes" choice on the poll, but I have occassionally used the wheel.

What a joke, LCC.


BTW, don't drive in DC, they have speeding cameras -- yes, cameras that are attached to radar guns pouinted down the street that automatically document and generate tickets based on this data.

2001 Le Vieux Donjon Chateauneuf du Pape

Please count me in for two.

Jeesh David, you would have to pick the weekend my in-laws from Chicago come to visit

Please count me in for one.

I knew he would pick the March date.

That's right David the four of us are in. Thanks for setting this up and my advice re the menu is when in doubt go big. Based on what wines are already on tap it looks we need to bring the best of the best from our cellars. We will do so. We will bring 1997 Marcassin Vineyard Estate Chardonnay and 1982 Pichon Lalande for sure. I will see what other 99/100 pointers I can dig up for the event.

1.2. Davidn and Trician
3.4. JonesWine and Mrs JonesWine
5.6. JonesWine's two guests
7.8. Mrs. Winetex and Mr. Winetex
9.10. Mr. and Mrs. Pete Marsh
11.12. Mr. and Mrs. Back Roads Bob
13. SFWine
14. Paul H
15.16. Mountainman and Mountainwoman



Wines already committed.
1999 Screaming Eagle/dn
1999 Marcassin Pinot Noir/dn
2001Kistler Chardonnay, Cuvee Cathleen/dn
Sine Qua Non Albino/dn
1997 Marcassin Vineyard Estate Chardonnay/db
1982 Pichon Lalande/db

Don't be intimidated by this list. All the wines don't need to be of this calibre. We should have some Santa Barbara County wines too. We need some Loring, Cargasacchi Vyd, Clos Pepe, Sea Smoke and the like.

Put me in for 2 and I should be able to confirm very soon.

Looks like we might have enough kiddies to get a group sitter.

Plug in the number of kiddies that need sitting and maybe we can put something together.

We will have our five year old with us. Babysitting is a must for the events. I have an idea that may work out for babysitting (invite the grandparents!). If so it could work out for a small group of kids. I will come up with a pretty good gift for the GPs.

Rats! This is the date of the 8th annual Rhone Rangers tasting at Fort Mason, to which Teri and I have already committed as team leads. Y'all have a great time, wish we could be there!

If Santa Barbara County wines are going to be the theme then we will be happy to change our selections. We will bring 2001 Brewer Clifton Melville Pinot Noir and Ojai one off Syrahs plus some white SQNs with a little age on them.

Henry Daniel, Thompson Special Bottling etc

The mrs. gave the green light to find a room for the weekend in SB. We were going to invite grandma to come up from SoCal to baby sit but if there is a viable alternative like a group sitter....mark me as interested.

I wish I could play, but I'm going to be in South Carolina that weekend. I'll have 2 wines in the Wine Cask Future's Program this year (my first time)! I'm letting then have 25 cases each of the 2004 Clos Pepe and 2004 Rancho Ontiveros. I don't have enough of the 2004 Cargasacchi to include it. I think both Kimberly and Andrew will be at the Wine Cask pouring the wines that day.

I'll have to bow out. Like Eric and Teri, I'll be working Rhone Rangers.