For The Love Of Port

In emails and on FB, I have been asked to consider doing another big sanctioned weekend of Madeira tasting, like the one I organized at Sociale, in SF back in 2013.
While I am up for organizing such an event in 2016, it would have to be here in Seattle and not in SF again. While I love that city, it has become increasingly difficult to find the quantity and quality of glassware required to pull off a fine Madeira event there without a ton of extra work. Not impossible, but it is far easier to organize an event like that in this area. From assisting with hotel suggestions, obtaining "corkage free" venues", and even providing some transportation by locals, it just makes far more sense all around to organize here. Considering people will likely be flying in for a weekend, the quality of offerings would have to be substantial. In 2013, to balance off the costs -- we did a Saturday event which was lower-key in terms of offerings and Sunday the "big guns" were broken out for some people that wanted to attend both, while others chose one or the other in which to participate.
Likely, the best time for me to organize this would be mid-April ... but for now, (keeping that in mind) we can discuss the parameters of such a weekend. Once we have come to a consensus, I'll then look at the calender and get more specific re: dates.
The only other parameter for now, is that we would have a maximum of 16-18 guests and therefore bottles, per day.
The rest ... for now ... is in your hands.
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Updated: April Fools Day ... April 1st 2016

I have the dates now carved in stone, which will appear in this post. I will not get to actual planning until the first week in February, however, I will update this thread at least weekly from here to there.

But as importantly, here's the ground rules for the weekend:

a. Maximum of 16 people at each event, the status of which will appear (guest list for Sat. and Sun.) in the very first post on page 1.
b. Priority will be given to those who are able to attend both events and are subscribers to FTLOP's newsletter. Beyond that, first come/first served. You may still attend just one or the other event, but those seeking to come for both will be placed higher on the guest list and it is theoretically possible to be bumped, if everyone comes for both events.
c. Logistics will be dealt with in Feb., as I am in the midst of planning 5 tours during January and have a very full plate. That being said, events will commence at either 1:00 or 2 p.m. on both days. Likely duration with be 4.5-5 hours with dinner to follow. That provides people time to sleep in, enjoy Seattle (one if not both events will likely be held in the city ... but, not sure yet) have breakfast, lunch or brunch ahead of time etc.
d. The Saturday event will encompass bottlings from $150-$400+ and Sunday will be at the next level, $500+ without an upper limit.
e. No sharing of pours (by spouses/partners) will be permitted for either event. In other words, everyone at the table will be offering a bottle to share for each day's event.

If you are interested in attending, please let us know in this thread. No prior posts mentioning attendance will count towards participation.

In determining what bottles will be included, I will do my best to be the arbiter of good taste, selecting bottles that will best fit what others send in. Please email me with your selections broken out by Saturday and Sunday parameters. (Portolover@aol DOT com). I will confirm receipt of the email upon receipt, but will only begin to make selections in early February. That should give everyone a few weeks to decide what they'd like to share with their friends. Please include in the subject line of your email: 2015 FTLOP Madeira weekend.

Dates:
Saturday: April 16th - Daniel's Broiler Lake Union - 809 Fairview Pl N, Seattle, WA 98109 ... attendees to arrive @ noon and start time as soon as Madeiras are poured. Dinner to follow. Approximately $100-150 per person, a la carte ... separate bills, so cost depends on what you order.

Sunday: April 17th - Osteria Rigoletto - 420 Pontius Ave N, Seattle, WA 98109 ... attendees to arrive @ 1 p.m. start time, as soon as Madeiras are poured. Dinner to follow. A pre-set 4 course meal is planned and cost is "all inclusive" @ $125 per person.



Guest List

Saturday:
1. Sandy Becker
2. Eric Ifune
3. Steve Pollack
4. Llyn Strelau (+1 guest at dinner)
5. Lindsay Evans
6. Marcus Rohlfs
7. Vic Wertz
8. Lisa Stevens
9. Alan Gardner
10. Terrance Creighton
11. Glenn Elliott
12. Mark Serrano
13. Jim White
14. Carol White
15. Roy Hersh
16.



Sunday:
1. Sandy Becker (Not able to join for dinner)
2. Eric Ifune
3. Steve Pollack
4. Llyn Strelau (+1 guest at dinner)
5. Lindsay Evans
6. Marcus Rohlfs
7. Vic Wertz
8. Lisa Stevens
9. Alan Gardner
10. Mark Serrano
11. Jim White
12. Carol White
13. Glenn Elliott
14. Roy Hersh
15.
16.

I'm in, but need to know the dates relatively soon.

I'm in for sure. Pretty flexible date wise. Will be in Vancouver BC early April but can fly out for Madeira if later.

Everybody sit down. All sitting? Okay?

I'm interested, too!

I'm definitely in as well. I do find it ironic that I'm stopped at this very moment for dinner on my drive down to move from the Seattle area to the San Francisco area, and event is headed the other way. That said, this will be one more wonderful reason to return home in the Spring.

I'll keep my eyes open for glassware solutions for potential future San Fran events.

This is not a sign up sheet for attendance ... at this point.

I would like to hear YOUR suggestions as to what you would like to see as the parameters for such an event. Read my initial post to get more of an idea what is being sought here, please. I prefer for potential participants to decide what they want to achieve with two tastings on back-to-back afternoons into evenings.

Thanks!

Roy,
My suggestion would be tasting through the entire Acciaioly lineup the first afternoon. Obviously, the second afternoon will be spent tasting the entire HH reserva lineup.

Everybody sit down. All sitting? Okay?

I'm interested, too!

I'm glad you warned me.

Roy,
My suggestion would be tasting through the entire Acciaioly lineup the first afternoon. Obviously, the second afternoon will be spent tasting the entire HH reserva lineup.

I was thinking all the family reserve Borges the first night and then the pre1850 Blandy's Malvasias and the Quinta do Serrados the next.

I think the plan for two tastings with one lower key is good. Daytime tastings and evening dinner with wine?

Eric Ifune wrote:I think the plan for two tastings with one lower key is good. Daytime tastings and evening dinner with wine?

I like this idea, too. I may only attend the lower-key tasting since I'm still sort of getting my feet wet, as it were, but I was pretty surprised by how much I enjoyed that last Madeira tasting.

I'm also a fan of

-Two day event, separated by tiers.

-Daytime tasting, evening meals. (perhaps not too early of a start on Saturday, to allow some folks to arrive in the morning in case they can't travel Friday night?)

-We could concentrate on producer or grape varietal.

-Or, for the first tasting, we could do multiple grape varietals, but separate by some BASIC small plates of food (I say basic so as not to ruin our palates) ? (example: 11-1230pm Sercial, break with basic small plates, 1:15pm-2:45pm Boal, break with very small plates, 3:30pm-5:00pm Malvazia, break then dinner.) ... I left out Terrantez in the above example, because it should have an entire day dedicated to it! LOL. Maybe the 2nd tasting can be more traditional with no food and just a feast at the end?

(I am bummed I missed the first ... I was raring to go and I don't even remember what happened. I can't let it happen again!)

Our group(s) in Toronto have tried different formats, and although a tasting of 16 (or more) madeiras seems interesting, we've switched to a format of about half that with a break (often including a meal). Some of us (!) find tasting 16 madeiras in a row more of an ordeal (that's a bottle each overall, unless we leave some - an expensive proposition).

So how about 2 separate tastings per day, separated by a 'smaller' meal (?pasta) and followed by a more formal dinner?

One (at least) would be a catch-all to accommodate madeiras that don't fit into the mini-themes (I'm assuming 8 bottles with a structure). In addition to those already mentioned, I'd like to do a 'solera vs vintage of same year' tasting; same vintage, different shipper comparison; same vintage, tinta negra mole vs. 'noble' grape comparison; single vineyard vertical. My commiserations to the person trying to co-ordinate all this!

My only suggestion is that any "big gun" tasting be the first tasting of the weekend, so that palates, minds, and bodies are as fresh as possible.

Steve,

We may have less people/bottles, but either way ... we shall definitely save the best for last. Besides, if we do the best first ... who would stay for the 2nd day? The other way around, people will come for the full weekend. I know you can handle this, I've seen your stamina, in person in Madeira with 35 Madeiras in a single day and table wines at lunch and dinner. You'll be ok, I promise.

35 Madeiras in one day? Where do I sign up for that? I'm willing to take on that challenge.

I don't have a preference of order. However, I seem to recall that in SF we did the high brow on day 1, and it worked out well (didn't lose many folks for day 2, and it allowed us to re-taste again a little the next day). Of course, even the "low brow" was stellar and very well aged. If I remember correctly it still averaged over 120 years of age.

I am interested. Of course it depends on the dates.

Roy Hersh wrote:Steve,

We may have less people/bottles, but either way ... we shall definitely save the best for last. Besides, if we do the best first ... who would stay for the 2nd day? The other way around, people will come for the full weekend. I know you can handle this, I've seen your stamina, in person in Madeira with 35 Madeiras in a single day and table wines at lunch and dinner. You'll be ok, I promise.

Thanks, Roy. I appreciate the vote of confidence!

Looking through the names on this thread so far, we might be having a partial Madeiraton reunion in Seattle!

I think we should do a Blandy's vertical that culminates with a special bottle that Roy procures from Chris' Family's stock of Demijohns. Roy, you have that kind of relationship with Chris, right?

I won't even consider that until your post count exceeds 100, Lindsay.

Roy Hersh wrote:I won't even consider that until your post count exceeds 100, Lindsay.

ROFL