We will be getting together at thetwood's house this coming Monday to welcome wineismylife to town. The primary chefs for the evening are thetwood and Benthewineberg.

The scheduled menu is:

Starter: Herb Ravioli on a bed of Parsley Sauce with Sautéed Mushrooms.

Soup: Essence of Wild Mushroom.

Main Course: Bistecca ala Fiorentina (think T-Bone steak) with grilled vegetables and potatoes.

Veggie Main Course: Marinated and Grilled Portobello Caps with grilled vegetables and potatoes.

Desert: Grilled Pears stuffed with Gorgonzola Dolce and Chocolate tart with blackberry coulee.

Wines for this dinner are TBA. The plan is for every attendee to bring a wine to match one or more courses, declaring only the course. All wines to be tasted double blind.

This should be great, we are looking forward to meeting you Joe!

Mike

I am looking forward to meeting all of the Denver winos. Now all I have to do is figure out what wine I'm going to drag up from Texas. Something that can withstand the plane ride and still drink well that evening. Maybe I should take the dessert course. By the time we get to that course nobody will care anymore.

Benthewineberg and I are finalizing all the food plans now (who can find the freshest ingrediants, who has the best truffle oil, etc.). Should be great fun for everyone. I'm just happy to have people to cook for.

wineismylife - Any wine you bring will be much appriciated. I don't think you have to worry too much about it; we usually end up with more wine than we know what to do with.

See you guys soon.

I made it to CO via a rather full but uneventful flight. Man, this altitude is rough stuff on us Texas boys! I've got a couple of bottles in tow. Let the mayhem begin in about 4 1/2 hours, 4 plus 29, 4 plus 28,

Down to one plus 49, time to head up soon. Hopefully rush hour traffic is not too bad.

At least the 7 inches of snow is all gone.

Mike

I cannot even begin to express my thanks and gratitude to all of the Denver Winos. They are an absolutely wonderful and diverse group of people that share this passion we all have for wine. Their hospitality was the best and greatly appreciated. We had an excellent dinner paired with several wines, all tasted double blind. What an blast! I think I got two varietals correct the whole evening! I can't wait until Mike starts posting some of the notes.

Thanks again everybody. I had a fantastic time.

Glad you enjoyed yourself. We certainly had a great time hosting. Not a bad night of wine for a Monday I really enjoyed tasting the wines along with food. A nice change from our normal wine-only tastings. Really puts a different spin on selecting and tasting. I'm pretty sure that I did much worse than you in guessing the wines.

Any time you're in the area, let us know. We're always ready to through something like this together.

Kinda late to start typing up the notes now, but it will get done this week. I think there are seventeen wines to write up, give or take a few. And who knows how many are decipherable.

On the bright side, Porter lucked out. I did not get into a wrestling match with him this time!

Of course, going home with blood on a white shirt the last two times, and wearing a white shirt again, maybe I was really the lucky one.

Mike

Some Denver area winos gathered on the night of May 12, 2003 to welcome wineismylife to our fair city with a night of food and wine. Our very own TheTWood and his wife, Bridget, were the hosts for this event, and were joined in culinary preparations by BenTheWineBerg. Also in attendance were FreeTheGrapes and his wife Jessica, my wife Jill, and the brother of Sideshow, Wayne, along with his wife Lyn.

A great time was had by all. The food that was prepared was spectacular, fine evidence of TheTWood's culinary training. The dishes are listed in a post above, and are also listed in the tasting notes where they were served with the wines.

Our esteemed chefs for the evening started with a bottle of 2000 Joh. Jos. Prum 2000 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Kabinett, which was gone before this guest arrived. In preparing the grilled pears with gorgonzola dolce and reduced riesling sauce, they sacrificed a bottle of 2001 Karl Erbes Urziger Wurzgarten Riesling Spatlese, which was reduced to an extremely small, almost solid reduction. No mention was made of how much they might have had to drink before performing the reduction, and no tasting notes are known to exist from the drinking.

The night also included some fine conversations, highlighted by the discussion of the intricacies of German grammar between WIML and Jill, and WIML offering to arm wrestle for the remains of one of the bottles. Another notable highlight was when TheTWood started taking spice jars out of his kitchen cabinet and lining them up on the tasting table to try to identify the aromas in one of the dessert wines.

We really need to eliminate the dessert wines from these tastings, especially on a Monday night.

The wines for the night included:

1989 Domaines Schlumberger Gewürztraminer
2002 Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc
1999 Shafer Relentless
2000 Seghesio Zinfandel Sonoma County Old Vine
1999 Truchard Pinot Noir Napa Valley Carneros
1991 Flora Springs Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Reserve
1993 Gaja Sugarille Brunello di Montalcino
2001 Marquis Philips Cabernet Sauvignon S2
2001 Unti Sangiovese Dry Creek Valley
2001 Yoakim Bridge Dry Creek Valley Syrah
1999 Vignoles Wine Late Harvest Barrel Aged Ice Wine, Sandy Hill Winery, Salinas, KS
1994 Churchill Vintage Port
2000 Alvear Pedro Ximenez de Avada Amontillado Montilla-Moriles Sherry
2000 Rosenblum California Black Muscat Gallagher Ranch
Yalumba Galway Pipe Australian Tawny Port NV

Our thanks go out to TheTWood for hosting this event, and to him and BenTheWineBerg for the cooking.

Mike

Mike,

After having enjoyed one of these Denver offlines with you (in DavidandRose's home) I can picture the carnage -- and the hospitality.

Looks like another fun Denver offline. WIML was a lucky guy to get to experience it.

Lucky is not enough stemor. I was truly honored. I had an wonderful evening. I can't even begin to express my thanks to all of the Denver group for the hospitality. It doesn't get any better than this.

Thanks again to one and all.

mbansek - Thanks for collecting and posting all of the notes. Especially with all of the links here.

Thanks again to everyone for making it up on a Monday night. I've been savoring the partial bottle of Tawny left over all week. The only wine left unfinished (other than the sherry WIML took). Not a bad night of food and wine.

Yeah, and you can consider that Sherry gone as well!

My thanks to Mike as well for all of the hard work typing this stuff up. It takes a lot of time. Job well done.