Ladies and men (note I left out the gentle part);

Each of you has expressed an interest in attending the 2nd Annual Otis Cellar Diminishment Party. On behalf of the Chicago Wine Mafia, I hereby convey an invitation to each of you to participate in the official CWM recorking ceremony at the end of the festivities on January 4th at the Otis abode.

What is the recorking ceremony? If last year is any indication, Otis will have opened more wine than is humanly possible to diminish. At the end of the night, all of the Mafia's out of town WS board member guests (the 8 of you) will be invited to mix their own blends from the leftover wines. I will bring my corking machine and we will recork and seal the bottles. Special Chicago Wine Mafia labels with the cepage and other interesting information will be prepared for each of your blends. R2D2 and I are working on some ideas for the labels now and we think you will be pleased with the results.

Are you up for the challenge? A list of the potential wines which may be leftover for your blends is here.

Until January, remember to keep your friends close, but your wines closer.

VM

Depends on if I survive the party and you have a thumb guard on your bottler.

Joe

Is this where we the White Castles come into play? I've never had the pleasure referred to as "scum on a bun".

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"It was a time of such splendor--charming people, good food, laughter, and brave ideas."
Maya Angelou

I forgot to mention another aspect of the recorking ceremony. The Mafia would like each of you to keep the rebottled wines as a momento of your visit. Take them back home with you. Open them at offlines with other members if you like and get their opinions on your winemaking/blending skills. We would love to see the notes on them sometime in the future.

Oh, and sliders are not allowed in the bottles.

VM

This was most definitely not my idea ...

Don't worry R2, this sings of Vino Me.

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Santa Cruz Mountains Vintage Chart

They'll never make it past security at the airport. At least I hope they don't make it past security.

Joe

I emailed Otis a few days ago, and unfortunately it does not look like I will be able to attend. If anything changes I will let you know.

IW

Life without wine?...... Yeah Right.<br /><br />I believe we have 2 lives; the life we learn with and the life we live with after that.

I printed up the labels for the bottles yesterday and RD did and excellent job on them. Am I correct that the out of towners are:

WIML
Tlily
Pinot Envy
Brian

VM

I'm out VM. I sent Otis and email about 3 weeks ago but forgot to post that here.

Joe

PE - You've never had White Castle? Please come back with notes on the little buggers. (You can get them at Costco, right near the wine in the frozen section.) I would kill for 10 or 20 right now.

Remember those little tasty burgers we had at that cocktail party in Napa? They were pretty close.

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http://seattle.vinocellar.com

Mrs. HDW is from Ohio, where they are affectionately called "sliders," for obvious gastronomical reasons... As any who have partaken are aware.

They are not only at Costco, but found around town in Las Vegas (where we know PE is wont to be).

If she misses out in Chi-town, we'll be sure to introduce her to the unique pleasures of a White Castle bugger... er... burger!

;-)

highdesertwine

Oh No....

You're not talking about a dozen or two White Castle's after a long night of drinking are you?

red4life

Hey, some of my fondest teenage memories are those of the wee hours of the morning spent under the fluorescent lights at White Castle staving off (or so we thought) the inevitable hangover.
Thread diversion apology.

Wish we could be in Chicago. Little Sugar Bowl in the way. This town is a rockin'.

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http://seattle.vinocellar.com

Divert away. There WILL be Sliders present at the end of the CDP. My wife will take care of that. I sure wouldn't want to be driving back in the limo with the out of towners and the downtown Mafioso.

VM

We ended up making 5 bottles of NV Chicago Wine Mafia Signature Series Cuvee. Tlily, Mr. Pinot Envy, R2-D2, AllRedATT and myself threw together a blend each.

Unfortunately, the limo with Tlily and Pinot Envy left before I could give them their bottles. I will ship them to you to enjoy with the California Crew.

VM