So what time will pre-drinking before seabar start? Currently I probably will spend most of my day at the Elmwood art festival, then hang out with my brother, and then I should be free, so just let me know, and I will drive to the house.

cjsiege wrote:So my memory of someone mentioning Taittinger is incorrect? I really need to start taking some ginkgo supplements...

Good news is that I can start looking for Roederer Estates again!

Your memory is fine, at least on that topic. However, we were trying to entice/bully TommytheCat into attending, and he knew I was referring to the Domaine Carneros by Taittinger that won the prize when I brought it to a sushi and bubbly event at Cheron98's a few years ago. I currently am holding onto the '04-'07 vertical to open if/when he ever shows up. I may have to take it to Chicagoland sometime. Roederer Estates is easy to come by around here, but I'll save you the trip and the $ by pulling something from the cellar. With the 2 bottles of IH Classic Brut we're going to compare, plus the bottle we'll need to buy at Seabar, just to keep Mike happy, plus whatever we wind up drinking with the cheese before or after, however that gets decided, we really don't need a lot more for just 5 of us.

ddeuddeg wrote:Or you could let me just pull another sparkler or two from my oversupply, and do me a good turn in the process. I really don't want to catch up to Sparky.

Works for me.

ddeuddeg wrote:We were thinking about going fairly early in the day, and maybe getting back to Buffalo in time to spend a couple hours at an arts festival, but now that they're talking about 90°F., that may be re-thought. It's early. We have the entire rest of the week to figure it out. In any case, we'll be staying on the US side.

And by "entire rest of the week" you mean "tomorrow" Just let me know.

Yep, just let me know at some point, what time I should show up at the house. I assume we have enough wine, and no one needs/wants anything from the finger lakes?

Completely off topic, but how did your Cayuga Lake swim go Tiger7610? Did you reach your fundraising goal?

pcuccaro wrote:Completely off topic, but how did your Cayuga Lake swim go Tiger7610? Did you reach your fundraising goal?

Yep! The swim was great, really choppy at the end, but the kayers who supported me were great, so it took me longer than I preferred, but will do it again. Thank you for your support!

tiger7610 wrote:Yep! The swim was great, really choppy at the end, but the kayers who supported me were great, so it took me longer than I preferred, but will do it again. Thank you for your support!

Congratulations!

tiger7610 wrote:Yep, just let me know at some point, what time I should show up at the house. I assume we have enough wine, and no one needs/wants anything from the finger lakes?

Definitely good on wine. After bahwm taked with cj last night, I think the current plan is to drop by the arts festival first, then head off to Niagara Falls to cool off, because it's supposed to be pretty hot tomorrow. Difficult to say how long anything might take, depending on how long we decide to stay on Elmwood Ave, and what we decide to see when we get to Niagara Falls. Staying on the US side removes the uncertainty of time lost on border crossings, at least. I think we'll save the cheese, etc. for after we've been to Seabar. So it would be safe to say that you could get to our place around 7, and we'll head downtown from here. Of course, all this is subject to change. There's lots of time.

Ok, my current plan is to drop by the Arts festival, hoping to arrive by around 10am, since thats when my fencing club is doing the demo. So I probably will hang out with them for a few hours, then still up in the air, maybe will head over to teh falls. It will depend on what my brother wants to do. I will have my phone on me, if the cheese and extra wine will end up being before seabar. I'm not sure if I will be able to partake in that much post seabar wine, since I need to drive to my friends place in elmwood for the night, and I want to be under the limit

tiger7610 wrote:Ok, my current plan is to drop by the Arts festival, hoping to arrive by around 10am, since thats when my fencing club is doing the demo. So I probably will hang out with them for a few hours, then still up in the air, maybe will head over to teh falls. It will depend on what my brother wants to do. I will have my phone on me, if the cheese and extra wine will end up being before seabar. I'm not sure if I will be able to partake in that much post seabar wine, since I need to drive to my friends place in elmwood for the night, and I want to be under the limit

With the things that we want to do before Seabar, cheese & wine will be AFTER Seabar.

Not sure exactly what other things we may do at the Falls. There is the Maid of the Mist and the Cave of the Winds which are both quite cool. And, great to do on a hot day!

Yeah I might do that as well. Ok I will show up around 7ish, maybe a little bit earlier, like 6:30?

tiger7610 wrote:Yeah I might do that as well. Ok I will show up around 7ish, maybe a little bit earlier, like 6:30?

It takes 10-15 minutes to get to Seabar. 7 is plenty of time. If you get here much earlier, we may not be back from our excursion(s), or we may be changing out of our wet clothes, and unable to come to the door. Or we may be napping.

Well, I'm awake. And apparently not going back to sleep. So maybe I'll just get up and hit the road soon. So maybe I'll meet you guys for wings.

cheron98 wrote:Well, I'm awake. And apparently not going back to sleep. So maybe I'll just get up and hit the road soon. So maybe I'll meet you guys for wings.

Hm, that would mean I can't make the TJ's run for you though...

Well, I managed to fall asleep again, so back to the original plan.

cheron98 wrote:Well, I managed to fall asleep again, so back to the original plan.

I'm glad you fell back to sleep! Safe travels!

In case my phone acts as stupid as it did last night--not ringing through or allowing texts through, ddeuddeg's number is the same as mine, but his last digit is a 3.

It seems like it may have been a Verizon network issue. Don't know. Don't like.

Yeah I did the same thing as cheron. Set my alarm, woke up, decided that it wasnt safe to drive, and that my fencing club doenst really need me at festival went back to sleep for an extra hour. About an hour away from Buffalo, first stop Elmwood Art festival, then maybe the falls, depending on what my brother wants to do. Looking forward to seeing everyone tonight.

Planning on 1:30 arrival @ Anchor Bar on Main Street & then to the Falls. Maybe see you there.

2:47 & we are entering Grand Island. We'll be in the Falls in about 15 minutes. First stop: Goat Island.

At the Buffalo Bison's game with cheron, cj & ddeuddeg.

Sigh.

It was wonderful, wasn't it?

I'm back from my midwestern family visit and would love to read tasting notes...and anything else you care to share. So sorry to have missed this gathering!

kkv123 wrote:Sigh.

It was wonderful, wasn't it?

I'm back from my midwestern family visit and would love to read tasting notes...and anything else you care to share. So sorry to have missed this gathering!

It was wonderful. We'll likely do it again sometime. We're prety much always up for a visit to Seabar. Cheron and Tiger have both been here a number of times, and also to Seabar previously, but it was CJ's first visit to Buffalo.
I don't think anyone took notes at the restaurant, but we had a bottle of NV Mumm Napa Brut Rosé, followed by 2 bottles of the Iron Horse 2006 Classic Vintage Brut, one from the woot offer last December, disgorged in August 2011, and the other disgorged more than a year earlier. It seemed to me a rare opportunity for comparison, since you don't often get that kind of detail from the winemaker, and I happened to have the earlier one sitting around in my cellar. CJ thought the earlier one (we drank that first) had a lot of citrus on the palate, while the other seemed to take on the character of whatever food you happened to be eating. With half a dozen sushi rolls being passed around, there was lots of variety. In any event, although all three were designated Brut, the Mumm was significantly sweeter to the taste than either IH.
After the ball game yesterday, CJ, bahwm and I stopped by the art festival for a bit, toured a little of the nicest section of the city on our way to show CJ where we put on the Shakespeare productions each summer, then dropped in at one of our (many) neighborhood Irish pubs for the Beef on Weck we had promised. Back at our house we popped open the '07 Roederer Estate that had been chilled for the night before, but which discretion advised against opening after 3 bottles for the 5 of us. A perfect conclusion to a lovely visit from the Southern Belle whose laid-back style provided the perfect medicine for a travel- and work-weary couple. We're hoping for a return visit, and maybe next time you'll be free to join us.

Yeah, sorry my brain checked out on Saturday evening during our lovely cheese course. I think the Canadian Plague was beginning to take hold of me after the massively interrupted sleep of Friday evening coupled with the drive through Canada and paired with standing in the mist. I got to about Woodstock when my nose started exhibiting symptoms. This morning was full-blown nasty.

Doing better now, but I'm exhausted, even after having spent most of the day asleep. Or maybe especially since I spent most of the day asleep...

Canadian Plague!

kkv123 wrote:Sigh.

It was wonderful, wasn't it?

I'm back from my midwestern family visit and would love to read tasting notes...and anything else you care to share. So sorry to have missed this gathering!

It really was lovely! I'm very sorry that you missed this one - even if it was for very good reasons.

Ddeuddeg has done an excellent job summarizing the whole tasting event. Although I wasn't aware that I was saying so much. I was truly surprised at the difference between the Late Disgorged IH vs. the "earlier" disgorged IH of the same vintage year. I wouldn't call them wildly different (that wouldn't make any real sense), but they are rather like siblings with very different taste and style. (For those of us of a certain age - kind of like Cathy vs. Patty from The Patty Duke Show.)

Ddeuddeg and bahwm are the most wonderful hosts! They gave up their entire weekend to show me as much of their wonderful city as we could see. I checked off about 3/4 of my list. But now I've started adding more great things to the list. I must come back!!! (Probably not in the winter, though. This southern belle is not a fan of the chilly time of year.)

It was wonderful to see Cheron and Tiger again! Unexpected fun bumping in to Tiger at the Elmwood Festival. And the ball game was icing on the cake!

Finally, thank you ddeuddeg and bahwm for opening your cellar for us! Outstanding sparklers! I enjoyed every bottle and every minute!

Really upset we missed this one. Would have been a nice weekend getaway.

Tonight will be my first night off since July 17th. I really hope to never do that again. Don't know what yet, but you better believe something good will be opened sometime this long weekend. I think a bottle of Victory seems quite appropriate.