So as one of the more wine savy servers at the restaurant where I work I've had a history of setting up small gatherings in my home for new servers who don't have a lot of wine experience. I'm hardly an expert, but I think I know a pretty fair amount for someone my age(25) and my tax bracket(see:broke college student) so I'm always happy to pass along a little knowledge. Last night I had my first one in probably close to a year and it went very well. I'm hoping to maybe get this going every other week or so and I was just wondering if any of you have experience with this kind of thing and good offer any advice.

Thanks in advance.

If you want to hook up with other winos on a regular basis, forums like these are a good place to start. As you noticed in this section, people announce offlines in their area. In general, most of these guys welcome newbies with a little hazing. You may also want to indicate your general location. Hey, you never know who's on this forum who may be across town from you.

Just because you are a college student and just getting into wine, don't discount other aspects of your life. You mention that you work at a restaurant. There's nothing better than hosting an offline at where you work and having the corkage waived.

Good luck!

Usually helps to have location too.

Well I hosted last night in my home and it was very casual. About 15 of my coworkers and some of their significant others in my home. My roommate have a small amalgam of stems of different shapes, sizes and quality so I bought a decent set of 24 stems, bought a few bottles and a few assorted cheeses and opened the door. We had some decent stuff, but as most of those in attendance are also broke college students nothing to get excited about. But it started out really casual just sitting around the living room trying the different wine and talking wine...and of course work. Once we had opened most of the wine and people were kind of tired of talking we cranked up the music and someone found the twister board in the laundry room and craziness followed.

Anyway, this is something I'm hoping to do every other week and maybe start having themes and moving the location around, not that I mind hosting, but several others expressed interest in hosting. So I was just wondering if anyone has done something similar to this and can share things that worked and/or didn't work for them.

As far as getting together for an off-line I definitely would given the opportunity. I live in Murfreesboro, TN about 30 miles from Nashville.

This would be my ideal group. We meet twice a month. One meeting we do a country/state, the next meeting we do a grape.

I would do California, Oregon, Washington, Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Australia, Argentina,Chile, and I would maybe do an exotic wine night where I do a few bottles from Croatia, Greece, Israel, Georgia, Slovenia. From each country I would have 1 white for every red. Then grapes, for starters I would do Reisling, Sauvignon blanc, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Merlot Cabernet Franc, etc...

In August lets say my featured state is CA. I would feature the grapes above and maybe a Grenache, Petit Verdot, Chenin Blanc and maybe some blends.

For the next meeting I would do the grape Chardonnay. I would have chard from CA, OR, WA, NY, AUS, Italy, FR, heck we even have one from Germany in my market. Some producers make oaked and unoaked versions.

Usually restaurant people can drink a lot so maybe a bottle a person would be perfect, maybe not even enough.

I would buy wines as low as $5.oo all the way up to $40.00 and then just add up the total and divide it by the number of attendees.

quote:

Originally posted by MTvino:I bought a decent set of 24 stems, bought a few bottles and a few assorted cheeses

Why pay for everything yourself? Figure out a system whereby everyone contributes equally, either by providing wine, food, cash, or something else of value.

quote:

Originally posted by Javachip:

quote:

Originally posted by MTvino:I bought a decent set of 24 stems, bought a few bottles and a few assorted cheeses

Why pay for everything yourself? Figure out a system whereby everyone contributes equally, either by providing wine, food, cash, or something else of value.

A fair point, but everyone brought at least one bottle, several brought two. A few brought cheese as well. It was a good first event, but I was the driving force behind this first one so I bit the bullet on cost for the first one.

I'll give you the same advice I've given others about starting up a group. Be like Nike, "Just do it".

I kind of sort of run a local tasting group. We meet monthly. After getting feedback from members I'll pick a venue, date and a theme. Whoever can come, comes. Whoever can't, doesn't. Not everybody can make it every month. It doesn't matter if it's just you and one other person. Just do it.

quote:

Originally posted by MTvino:
As far as getting together for an off-line I definitely would given the opportunity. I live in Murfreesboro, TN about 30 miles from Nashville.

There are several folks in this forum who live in or near Nashville. And if you happen to come up to NYC, give us a holler.

quote:

Originally posted by MTvino:
Once we had opened most of the wine and people were kind of tired of talking we cranked up the music and someone found the twister board in the laundry room and craziness followed.

Don't let spo fool you, this is EXACTLY what offlines with him are like

It sounds like you're doing just fine. One thing that has worked pretty well for us over the years is to ask people to bring either food OR wine. Some people end up bringing both, but it spreads the costs around. It also lets the wine geeks bring more than one bottle and the newbies not feel intimidated in bringing a wine, since they can bring food instead.

Origin and Grape are pretty standard things to do, but once you get going you can shake things up a bit. Women Winemakers, New Wineries (less than 5 years old), and Burgers and Bordeaux (wines made from the Bordeaux grapes) have been fun ones we've done.

Oh and the number one absolute must.

START WITH CHAMPAGNE

quote:

Originally posted by MTvino:
So as one of the more wine savy servers at the restaurant where I work I've had a history of setting up small gatherings in my home for new servers who don't have a lot of wine experience. I'm hardly an expert, but I think I know a pretty fair amount for someone my age(25) and my tax bracket(see:broke college student) so I'm always happy to pass along a little knowledge. Last night I had my first one in probably close to a year and it went very well. I'm hoping to maybe get this going every other week or so and I was just wondering if any of you have experience with this kind of thing and good offer any advice.

Thanks in advance.

1st piece of advise: Every other week is not sustainable. Even once monthly is extremely difficult. It can work for even a year or so, but eventually, I think every other month becomes what people are most comfortable with.

2nd piece of advise: BROAD themes can be a great way to learn while still letting people bring/drink what they want. eg. "Red Burgundy" probably won't work as well as "Pinot Noir" or "French Red, not Bordeaux" -- especially being young and lacking funds.

3rd piece of advise: Homes > restaurants. It is great to go out sometimes, but all the best tastings I've had have been where we cooked together or everyone was responsible for bringing a dish, and we hung out and drank as much as we wanted and were as caual as we wanted to be.

4th piece of advise: People need to know what is expected of them re: contribution, but it is eqully true that not everyone can contribute the same, and this also needs to be understood by all. CERTAINLY, I have been more on the recievin end, particularly vis a vis one specific forumite, than on the giving end in this regard. The point simply is to know expectations.

quote:

Originally posted by Stefania Wine:


Oh and the number one absolute must.

START WITH CHAMPAGNE

My roommate and I have been on a bit of a champagne kick over the last year or so. We usually keep it in the $20 range, though on New Year's I sprung for a bottle of PJ and he for a bottle of White Star(which I've had a few times) I also one night after a particularly good night at work sprung for a bottle of VC. Of the aforementioned three, think I liked the PJ the best.

In the $20 range we really like Coppola Sophia and Piper Sonoma.

Any other recommendations in that price range. Also I'll be graduating next May and I need a celebration bottle, I've almost pulled the trigger on a 98 VC La Grand Dame a few times, any other suggestions?

I had a friend who had a Champagne tasting once and in a blind tasting Sophia lost to the spit bucket. Just saying.

Argyle is usually in the $20 range, and under $10 Domaine St Michelle is good. Also Gruet is widely available and under $15 in most places.

Champagen selection is a semi political/religeous preference thing. I prefer Bollinger Grand Anne and Charles Ellner for special occasions. Krug would also be on that list, but it's not in my budget.

quote:

Originally posted by Stefania Wine:
I had a friend who had a Champagne tasting once and in a blind tasting Sophia lost to the spit bucket. Just saying.

Argyle is usually in the $20 range, and under $10 Domaine St Michelle is good. Also Gruet is widely available and under $15 in most places.

Champagen selection is a semi political/religeous preference thing. I prefer Bollinger Grand Anne and Charles Ellner for special occasions. Krug would also be on that list, but it's not in my budget.

Well here in Tennessee the $20 Champagne range is pretty limited. I mean Korbel is around $14... What about some good Cava? I had a Segura Viudas Reserva Heredad, there was something about it I didn't particularly care for, it was bit too "mineraly" for my taste IIRC.

The Grand Anne was another I've had my eye on for graduation.

quote:

Originally posted by winetarelli:

1st piece of advise: Every other week is not sustainable. Even once monthly is extremely difficult. It can work for even a year or so, but eventually, I think every other month becomes what people are most comfortable with.

I don't think that this will be a problem for us. 90% of the people involved are in their early to mid twenties and aren't married. 95% of the people involved work together and we hang out after pretty frequently as it is. I don't know if it will end up being every other week or not, but we'll see.

Cava is an ok sub, especially in TN where things are so expensive, but they do tend to higher acid and don't have lees caracter.

quote:

Originally posted by MTvino:

quote:

Originally posted by Stefania Wine:


Oh and the number one absolute must.

START WITH CHAMPAGNE

My roommate and I have been on a bit of a champagne kick over the last year or so. We usually keep it in the $20 range, though on New Year's I sprung for a bottle of PJ and he for a bottle of White Star(which I've had a few times) I also one night after a particularly good night at work sprung for a bottle of VC. Of the aforementioned three, think I liked the PJ the best.

In the $20 range we really like Coppola Sophia and Piper Sonoma.

Any other recommendations in that price range. Also I'll be graduating next May and I need a celebration bottle, I've almost pulled the trigger on a 98 VC La Grand Dame a few times, any other suggestions?

pol roger can be had for 24$ ... give that a shot. i feel it's smoother and cheaper then teh VC.

FWIW, I organized a blind tasting group last December. We meet once a month at a very small local shop (which sells good basic food and mostly $15-$20 wine). The shop advertises the meeting (Thursday, after work), and the crowds have been mostly in the 10-15 person range. No outside food of course, and everybody brings a bottle, any price point.

The themes have been broad (eg: Italian whites, Merlot), which has worked well, but after getting a couple months of some really crappy bottles ($4 swill), I announced that each month the person with the voted WOTN picks the next month's theme. Haven't seen any Petrus show up, but some excellent and well thought out $10 bottles have vied for top honors. One of our regulars has stepped up to document scores and shoots an email out with rankings a few days later, which helps a lot, as I'm terrible at that stuff.

We're not to anal about anything, just that folks keep quiet during the initial sniff and taste, so impressions don't get colored by people blurting out things. Otherwise, it's a social event.

We have a wide range of experience in the regulars attendees, which is excellent, and most bottles tend to be in the $10-$25 range with a few outliers on occasion.

The wine shop is very casual, so we can be pretty loud, and they sell a fair amount of food and wine to the group. Best part: no kitchen to clean up in the morning!

quote:

Originally posted by spo:
This would be my ideal group. We meet twice a month. One meeting we do a country/state, the next meeting we do a grape.

I would do California, Oregon, Washington, Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Australia, Argentina,Chile, and I would maybe do an exotic wine night where I do a few bottles from Croatia, Greece, Israel, Georgia, Slovenia. From each country I would have 1 white for every red. Then grapes, for starters I would do Reisling, Sauvignon blanc, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Merlot Cabernet Franc, etc...

In August lets say my featured state is CA. I would feature the grapes above and maybe a Grenache, Petit Verdot, Chenin Blanc and maybe some blends.

For the next meeting I would do the grape Chardonnay. I would have chard from CA, OR, WA, NY, AUS, Italy, FR, heck we even have one from Germany in my market. Some producers make oaked and unoaked versions.

Usually restaurant people can drink a lot so maybe a bottle a person would be perfect, maybe not even enough.

I would buy wines as low as $5.oo all the way up to $40.00 and then just add up the total and divide it by the number of attendees.

Very cool ideas for offlines... why is this the first time I have heard of these?

Our group did not dig themes.