1985 horizontal, Seattle, Jan 24-25 2015

[Roy Hersh]

Just to mention that The Herb Farm is the best restaurant in WA State. It is one of the truly great ones in the USA. Expensive but worth the price of admission. There likely won't be any other events that night.

[Lisa Stevens]

Hey y'all:

Just thought I would chime in here now that my crazy Herbfarm idea has hit this thread!

Vic and I have been going to the Herbfarm for many, many years. Currently, we are approaching 130 different times that we have gone! The menu changes daily, is super creative, and sources from all over the Pacific Northwest. I guarantee that if you come on that Friday night, you will have the meal of a lifetime! And they will be more than happy to have us bring in some ports to open over the second half of the menu.

I need to make a reservation if we have enough interest. If you are in for that evening, please email me at lisa@paizo.com. If you have questions about the meal, please also email me. The Herbfarm is amazing at tailoring their menu for allergies or food dislikes. Many times, those alternate dishes are even better than the ones everyone else gets!

The Herbfarm has gotten many comparisons to The French Laundry down in Napa and has been given Five Diamonds by AAA, one of only two restaurants in North America to get that rating, the other being the afore mentioned French Laundry.

I hope you are enticed and will come have an incredible meal with me to celebrate my birthday! Again, please email me privately in the next few days so I can gather together a list of folks who want to come and then make the reservation.

Thanks!

-Lisa

[Edgar B.]

I'm booked at Holiday Inn-Issaquah . Jan. 23 arrival-Jan 26 departure. Would love to go to Herbfarm , but too rich for my blood . If anyone would like to meet for a Fri night dinner somewhere close to Hol Inn, let me know.

What a tasting this will be!!!

[Glenn E.]

Roy got us the same rate (for the conference room) as we had last year, so the room is now confirmed for both days. So my estimate was correct and that part of the cost will come to $40 per person.

I suppose I should do the math on the Port costs soon, too! The size of the tasting has grown slightly so I may have underestimated cost there by a little bit, but we'll see once I add it all up.

[Lisa S]

I'm hoping Santa gets me into this tasting. Sigh......still on the wait list.

[Roy Hersh]

Well, less than a month to go and things have shaped up nicely. Looking forward to see everyone and have an early (2015) look at these 30 year old VPs. Should be a great weekend!

[Bradley Bogdan]

Hotel and travel booked, and very excited! Too bad none of my internet sleuthing has turned up any of those remaining producers at a reasonable price. I hope we'll end up having enough!


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[Roy Hersh]

Glenn,

When you have a moment, can you please provide us with a total cost for wines, room rental etc. in one neat figure so that there will be no last minute surprises.

[Glenn E.]

When you have a moment, can you please provide us with a total cost for wines, room rental etc. in one neat figure so that there will be no last minute surprises.

Absolutely! I meant to do that this past weekend but forgot. Thanks for the reminder!

To make that happen, though, I need to know what everyone who is bringing bottles paid for those bottles. If you're bringing a bottle feel free to PM me here on the forum or email me. I'll also try to contact everyone via email.

[Glenn E.]

I don't have all of the information yet (2 people haven't sent their info yet), but it looks like my original estimate for the Port was a little bit low. That's primarily due to us now having more bottles than I'd originally projected, so it's a good thing.

Including a rough estimate for the info that I haven't yet received, it's now looking like the total cost for the Port is going to be about $2320. For 16 people, that works out to $145 each. Add another $40 for the room rental for two days and we're looking at a total cost per person of $185.

If you are bringing Port your cost will be adjusted by the value you've given me for the Port you're bringing. At least a couple of people will be getting money back. I'll try to have some change with me on Saturday, but it would help if everyone could either bring a check or the correct amount of cash.

I'll post again once I have final numbers, but wanted to give everyone a heads up that the cost is a little higher than originally projected.

2 weeks to go!!!

[Roy Hersh]

Thanks Glenn. Looking forward to this and seeing everyone!

[Bradley Bogdan]

Very excited!


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[Roy Hersh]

I dunno, it just seems like we don't have enough 1985's to make this an epic tasting. I blame Glenn!

[Lisa S]

Any chance any one has cancelled. I'm hoping to get off that waitlist! This is torture!

[Glenn E.]

Stay tuned, Lisa, I'm working on it right now!

In other news, even though I still don't have 100% information on the costs I'm just going to go with $185 per person so that everyone can plan ahead. It'll probably ultimately be a little more than that, but that's close enough. That is $145 for the Port and $40 for the room.

10 days away!!!

[Glenn E.]

Regretfully, Marc has had to bow out due to work. However he has graciously shipped the bottles that he was going to bring so that we can still have them for the tasting, so the Guedes, Rabello Valente, and Niepoort will still be included.

That means that Edgar's friend Steve McNabb will now be attending.

Lisa... you're now at the top of the list! It helps a lot that you're local - I may call you on Friday if someone misses their flight!

[Glenn E.]

I just got off the phone with Sean C, and he's had to bow out due to work as well. But like Marc, he's going to ship his bottles to me so that we still have them for the tasting.

Lisa - that means you're in! I'll ping you on Facebook as well to make sure you know. :)

[Lisa S]

Wahoo! Doing the happy dance. Looking forward to this epic tasting.

So other than the $185 for the port/room cost is there anything else I should bring? Am I allowed to bring snacks into the tasting room for us to have on a break. I seem to remember that food (other than the baguettes) was banned in the room but thought I would check anyways. Also wondered if the hotel has a group rate for those booking a room for this event.

Looking forward to meeting everyone.
Cheers,
Lisa S.

[John M.]

Wow...Only $185 to taste 30+ 30 year old ports. Sounds like a steal! I am very jealous!! Enjoy--post TNs and a story (imagine it will be in the newsletter).

[Glenn E.]

Lisa - nope, no need for you to bring anything else unless you have several dozen Port glasses that we could use. I did a mental count and I think we're going to be quite a bit short on glasses so we may have to pour in flights each day. As far as the hotel goes, I'm not aware of any special pricing. I do know that a few people are staying at the Motel 6 across the road instead of at the Holiday Inn, and I presume they are doing so because it is less expensive.

John - yep, it's going to be epic! I'm sure someone will do a writeup of the event for the newsletter, and of course we'll get as many TNs posted as we can.

ONE MORE WEEK!!!