South Bay LA - August Offline (Planning)

Hi SoCal Berserkers,

Long time lurker and never poster (I have lurked back into ebob days), based in South Bay LA. Though I have lots of friends I drink wine with, I’ve spent far too long without a group of wine friends. I’ve decided to change that situation by organizing some dinners/tastings. Right now, I’ve labeled this thread as “planning” just so that I can start to get a sense of who (if anyone) is interested and go from there. I have some thoughts on locations, themes, formats, etc below so please let me know your thoughts, interest level etc.

If there is interest and it comes together, my goal is to have this become a semi-regular South Bay tasting group…A shining beacon among a sea of Rombauer perhaps. I can only speak for myself, but I have a distinct lack of nerdy wine friends to drink, talk about, and share great wine with, so hopefully some others out there are interested too!


August Dates:
I’d like to try and organize this on a Friday or Saturday evening. The first two dates I’d throw out there as possibilities would be the 16th or 17th of August.

Potential Locations:
I’m definitely selfishly trying to keep this close to home… Of the spots in the area that I’ve personally visited, two stick out as potentially good venues, both in Manhattan Beach. I’m certainly open to other ideas.

-The Arthur J. Excellent wood fired dry aged steaks and I had great service from my one visit. I brought a bottle of ’09 Dom and a bottle of ’83 Poyferre when we ate there, and one of the managers immediately came over and provided interested and engaged wine service. I shared some of each bottle with him and got his card, mentioning I was potentially interested in setting up a tasting dinner there, and he seemed keen. I’m not a huge pairing guy, but based on the fare here, this seems well suited to Bordeaux/Cab Based wines, Northern Rhone/Syrah, etc and less so Burgs.

-Love and Salt. California Italian, though I believe that we could make this work for a variety of wines, potentially including burgs depending on how we ordered.

I would need to do recon at both restaurants on stemware, corkage, their willingness to deal with something like this etc. I’m also open to other ideas in the Manhattan/Hermosa/Redondo area and would happily go to check out and recon any suggestions!


Formats:
In my head it feels like around 8-10 people is the right max group size for this, so that it doesn’t start to get too large and unwieldy. I’m game to see what the response is and go from there as far as group size goes. We would commit to a theme and everyone would propose a couple bottles to bring to make sure we’re not stepping on each others selections.

If we get a group that clicks and this continues, in the future I’m also interested in a format where we bring bottles according to a theme and in addition contribute funds to source bottles that we otherwise wouldn’t purchase individually.


Themes:
All the themes I’m throwing out there represent things that I am specifically interested in and can also materially contribute to. Though I don’t have a total baller cellar full of Roumier and 1st growths, I do have a decent selection of some interesting stuff and I need people to share it with!

Potential 1st Dinner Themes
-Bordeaux 1990 and earlier
-Bordeaux 1982 and 1983
-Burgundy 1999 and earlier
… Let’s see what the responses are from people and we can go from there.

Potential Future Tasting Themes
-Leoville Poyferre Vertical
-Specific Vintage and Village Burgundy tastings
-Pre 1995 White Burgs
-Any older bordeaux tastings, whether verticals, vintage specific, other themes.
-Northern Rhone
-Rhys and Cayuse Syrah
-Rhys Pinot Check-In
-Sine Qua Non


Logistics:
I’ve never planned an offline before, so I may (read: will) be finding my way through some (read: all) of this. That said, I’ll be checking with the potential venues about pertinents, wrangling the attendees and selections, coordinating communication etc. I’ll definitely have questions that will come up, so bear with me!


Absolutely hoping that this interests some folks and look forward to hearing your thoughts! Let me know if you’re interested, dates that could work and themes you’d be keen for.


Thanks!
Josh

Would love to make it but being in Pasadena makes it a bit tough. But, if you find a date and theme, I’ll see what I can do.

Josh, the best way is to set a theme and a rough estimate of a date. Then people can easily commit.

Josh: I would love to participate once you pick a date and theme. Plus,If I cannot make the first attempt, I would certainly be interested in future dates.

Cheers!
Marshall [cheers.gif]

Thanks everyone for the replies so far, I’ve just been in China for way too long, so apologies for the delay in response… I’ll be updating this in the coming days with a firm theme and date.

Tom, understand the East side issue, I face it in reverse pretty consistently. Hope you can make it when all is said and done.

Charlie, appreciate the advice on just firming things up, also hope that you can make it out!

Marshall, sounds great, would look forward to meeting a local board member for sure! As a Southbay local, I would welcome any restaurant venue suggestions you might have, especially for Burgundy dinners, as that is something that has been hard for me to figure out down here.


Thanks!
Josh

Any updates?

Cheers!
Marshall grouphug

Hi Marshall,

Definitely still working on / thinking about this. Was out on vacation for a while and work is a bit hectic so it’s been delayed to be sure but I’m absolutely still trying to get some local folks committed and aligned. I will keep you posted as I know more…

Josh, I live inManhattan Beach. Have my mother in law in town for the next three weeks so please give me an excuse to go out! Love and salt, Arthur j’s. I’m in!

Josh- I’m in MB and always looking to meet more winos! My frame of reference tends to skew more toward Napa Cabs and BdM but always looking to expand my palette and learn more. Would love to join in! newhere

Hi Brent,

Thanks for the note, I also have some family in town and know the feeling. At this point, it’s looking like September is likely more viable, so definitely would be great to meet you there but not sure I can give you an escape from the MIL :wink:

Hi Ed, right on, would be great to meet. I’ll keep you posted as this moves forward…

Interested and watching. loving the idea of an offline in the south bay!

I’m following this just in case it moves sliiiightly further north to Venice or Santa Monica.

I’m in for Venice or Santa Monica…if you start a thread I can jump in and help organise.

Josh-just sent you a message.

South Bay or even Westside gang-we should figure something out!

Will be visiting the MB area 10/23-27 and would like to attend any day.

interested in attending assuming in town on date

I’d be in for something on the Westside!

I’m Westside (CC) as well.

Still hoping for some South bay traction…There have been a few new restaurant openings of late but I am not sure if they would be amenable to wine dinners.

Cheers!
Marshall [cheers.gif]