Either way would be great, I just really enjoyed it and would definitely be up for another night. Thanks so much again Lar for organising. Hopefully see you soon,

Caroline

As for the wine, I was particularly surprised that I preferred the Wild Earth, particularly over the Burgundies. We had tried that before at Enowine (as you’ll recall), on recommendation from the staff there, but it didn’t fare well in comparison to the other wines we tried, none of which were Pinots. Just goes to show how much the comparison matters, I suppose.

Thanks for the link. Went through most of them. I like the idea. The wayu I do it here in Cork at the moment is, that I ask around (email, txt) what date suits most of the girls and then I send out invites (quite posh actually ;-) the first 2 tastings I decided on the wine but for the last tasting I asked the girls to bring a bottle each that they would like to taste for the next time. I take photos of the bottles and create tasting cards where they can rate the wine and the list is then published on the blog. I like the idea of the tasting card as we can see where the wine was bought and how much it costs.

I love the idea of doing it on a more ‘official’ basis here in Cork as it is in my living room at the moment where we meet. Open to all suggestions..

;-)

Apologies about the confusion, it is indeed http://www.wine-pages.com. Rather than looking at what Tom does (which is very impressive but is a professional job and most of the tastings he attends, although not all, are industry tastings) have a look at the off-line forum:
http://www.wine-pages.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=forum;f=2. These are all informal tastings organized by individuals. It would be great to get something like this up and running in Ireland.

Cheers,
Will

thanks a mill for the input. My mistake, Wild Earth, not Earth’s End, was the PN from Central Otago.

I’ll look up wine-pages.co.uk for some ideas

Lar

Sounds like the crowd decided a theme pretty well on their own. Perhaps there is a lesson in this? Is that earths end pinot the same wine that M&S are selling?

With regard to the format/venue, it’s quite obvious that F&B lend themselves quite well to this kind of a tasting. There aren’t many other venues that lend themselves to this kind of tasting without some serious negotiation. I wonder would the likes of BBR/O’Briens/Donnybrook Fair/Mitchels open themselves up to this kind of a tasting (people choose wines at retail prices and taste them on site)?

Another obvious venue for this kind of tasting would be somewhere like the Ely wine bars except that they charge bar prices but it may be a little more expensive as they charge more like restaurant prices.

It’s a pity that there isn’t more BYO restaurants in Dublin that would enable people to bring along their own bottles, this could certainly enable a more serious off-line/tasting? This format would enable more planning around themes etc.. whereas the F&B format would seem to work well that people all decide what to drink on a given evening.

There are alot of these tastings/off-lines organized in the UK through the wine-pages.co.uk forum that are worth reading about, for ideas, if you aren’t familiar with them.

Well done again,
Will