After I’d chugged my 10 ounce pour of it, I started losing my focus on what vintage the bottles were.
Limit the amount of extra people one person can “buy” entries into the event for. Otherwise you get people bringing a lot of friends that are not really into wine but just want to drink a lot of wine for under $100. They might not understand tasting decorum and pour sizes. If only one or two people pour large pours it’s fine, but when you have 10-20 people doing it, you drain bottles fast.
Sure the charity gets money, but gotta think about the wineries that donate as well, how many of these people are repeat customers or remember what they are drinking.
There is a lot of good feedback here–please share any if you have some on your mind and have yet to post it. We will make small changes next year to improve in these areas, as it is all doable.
Charlie, no one is permitted to write a check to Laura’s House for more than 2 tickets. In rare instances, I allow it because someone is coming from out of state and they are slogging here from Detroit or Philly, etc. I want people to bring friends, to encourage new people to attend who may not know a lot about wine or the producers who donate their craft. This keeps Falltacular healthy, exposing new people to new relationships, the wineries (who I want to see find new customers) and ultimately, the end goal, to bring the education to more people about how serious DV is and the cost to all of us. What we do though need to do is to make sure new people understand how to react to the event when they are here, to understand the pouring culture, etc. This is as I said very doable.
Sounds like the event is in a struggle to be identified as either a wine event or a charity event. I know the intent is charitable, but it is for sure one of the wine events of the year. Annual events go through struggles like these - I was involved in the American Heart Association in SF some years ago. It was affordable for many, a great high-end event with great wines and foods and an excellent auction. Then it changed. Corporate took over, and then others of us were closed out. It became a huge source of charitable revenue, but what we had built became lost. The bottom line is, of course, money raised for the charity. But sometimes something else gets lost.
Then again, one of my best wine friends is known to my other friends as “the guy with the big laughs and the big pours.”
Well done, Frank, however you choose to move forward.
Well done again Frank and Jill! I’ve always felt good about contributing to Laura’s House through Falltacular (5th time for Tablas Creek Vineyard, 1st time for my micro Dark Hollow Syrah label), but this year, via the powerful testimony, vibe and thankfulness of the Murrays, I felt like I was involved in something far bigger here, on the bright side of humanity, when it’s absolutely needed the most.
Few Friday Night 'Lights:
WOTN Kathryn Kennedy 1995 Cabernet Sauvignon Santa Cruz Mountains
Showstopper. Know of these wines but had never had any. Incredible point in its evolution. Possibly one of the finest aged Cabs I’d ever tried. Walks the line of old school California Cab but with some sunnier ripeness that had been shed to a point of tobacco laced perfection.
Arnot Roberts 2010 Vare Vineyard Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon out of mag, 12.2 alcohol and one barrel produced. Would love to check back on this stoic, 1970’s era California juice in 10 to 20 years! There was a first whiff of ketchup, then greenery, and a minerally palate flavored with dark chocolate, olives and coffee, which sounds like a recipe for acid reflux but wasn’t! I kept tripping out on the purity, and this was even at the end of the night.
Saxum Bone Rock Paso Robles 2009. Epic oak styling that matched the fruit extract and richness of the wine, and not showing any signs of breaking down. Possibly at a perfect place with tannins integrated.
Short Saturday Highlights
Model Farm 2014 Syrah. Glad I bought a 3 pack of this last year. Cracked one, stashed two. At less than 13% alcohol it over delivers on the aromatics. This young couple nailed everything you could want out of cool climate Syrah.
Peake Ranch 2015 Chardonnay Santa Rita Hills. Rocks, lemon curd, pear and righteously integrated oak profile. My friend Jeff from Grimm’s Bluff claimed a Puligny like character, all out of Santa Rita Hills.
Kutch 2016 McDougall Ranch Sonoma Coast. Favorite of the Kutch wines.
Great to meet and taste with more Berserkers. I’ll be back in 2019 for sure!
Bottom line - my favorite event each and every year. The pouring issue does not detract from it at all - and as others said, let’s get back to the notes 
As many of you know, I don’t post many notes, but I did have a few standouts (though I really did not taste that many wines as I was too busy talking - surprise surprise)
I dug the Willlam and Mary Cab - yep, I was lucky to get a tiny pour before it was gone. Very juicy and young with some noticeable oak on the back end. Seems to me to be an earlier drinker than one to lay down for a decade or two - nothing wrong with that.
Kutch Sonoma Coast (or County) Chardonnay - I really dug this wine and didn’t mind that it was really chilled. Less noticeable oak than nearly all of the other chardonnays being poured with nice mouthfeel and abundant but not overbearing acidity (I thought last year’s was a bit more ‘challenging’ to drink cold).
Matthiason White - not sure of the blend but this was an interesting wine, and stuck out in a good way compared to many others outside. And it didn’t hurt that I got to meet and talk for awhile with Jill M - one of my highlights for sure.
Big Table Farm Syrah - there was much debate about which one was preferred, but I really dug the 15. Yep, a year younger than the 14 but just delivered more earthy tannin goodness - this one is a keeper for awhile . . .
Tablas Creek 13 Espirit - man o man, these guys kill it each and ever year. I liked the 15 Mourvedre, but this thing was so much more complex, had so much more going on, and if I was going to take a 6 oz pour of anything, this would have been it
I tasted through a number of pinots quite quickly but really didn’t get to anything that ‘blew my socks off’ - I did not taste Cabot’s selections but did taste many others and felt that they were good but not great.
The beer selection at the after party was quite impressive, but as I had a 3 hour drive home and then another 2 hour drive the next morning for another tasting, I really did not get to partake. Timing . . .
Frank - at the end of the day, this is a fantastic event that brings together some of my favorite people in the world, and I unfortunately only get once a year to go ‘off this board’ and ‘off social media’ to actually get to meet, greet, hug, and laugh with people in person - and for a noble and worthy cause. Brilliant!
Cheers.
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Frank -
Thanks to Jill and you and congratulation on hosting another great event! Great wine, wonderful cause, and even better fellowship with such a terrific group of people - my friends from Detroit were already making plans to come back again next year.
My Friday night highlight was the sip of the 1993 Corison cab that the Watkins shared with me - absolutely delicious, classic Cali cab! …and to add my 2 cents to the conversation about pour sizes on Saturday - I like Steve A.'s suggestion to bring bottles to share out on the patio on Saturday, but I would consider taking it one step related direction, and suggest that the unfinished bottles from the Friday night dinner be gathered up and brought over to the main event on Saturday. There seemed to be a lot of extra wine leftover after the Friday night dinner this year, and that could easily be collected and left on the patio table for people to partake of during the Saturday main event in addition to any bottles that attendees might want to bring and share on Saturday…
I didn’t take any formal tasting notes during the Saturday main event, but a few impressions of a couple of wines that stood out for me:
2016 Halcon Bearwallow pinot - on the lighter, more feminine side of the pinot spectrum, but for me, it was right in my wheelhouse and might have been my favorite pinot of the day.
2016 Kutch Falstaff pinot - to me this was the most approachable/expressive of the Kutch pinots which made it my favorite of the strong trio of Kutch’s being poured
2014 Dunstan Durell pinot - I remember this having a fantastic nose, a little on the darker end of the pinot spectrum, had a good balance between fruit and structure
2015 Ladd Cellars primitivo - this was one of my favorites of the day, probably because it stood out as so different from most of the other wines I tasted. Light bodied, fantastic aromatics as I swirled it around in the glass, this got better as I let it sit in the glass. Got a chance to talk about this wine with Eric a bit - he said it was the only year he got this fruit from the vineyard, so this is the one and only vintage of it.
2015 Tablas Creek Espirit & 2015 Tablas Creek Mouvedre - another pair of wines that stood out for me - one of my friends commented these clearly leaned on the “French” side of the spectrum, and I thought they were both beautiful, balanced, and complex with layers of flavor.
2014 Calluna Vineyards estate cabernet sauvignon - I “discovered” this winery at last year’s Falltacular, so I was looking forward to trying their offerings this year, and this cab did not disappoint. Was a little tightly wound when I tried it, but shows so much potential.
2017 Tercero Mourvedre Rose - thought this was absolutely yummy! I don’t buy much rose anymore, but if I did, this would be tops on my list.
Cheers!
Paul
I didn’t see any Big Table Farm. Are you perhaps referring to the Model Farm Syrah?
Paul, I have a ‘10 Calluna Estate waiting for a reason to be opened. I’ll bring it next year and share it with you.
Yes . . . 
Frank and Jill are the ultimate hosts. This was my eighth year. I did not see any super-large pours. i admit to a two ounce pour of a couple of wines. I have noticed over the years that the Rivers-Marie and Rhys wines always go first. The point Frank pointed out should have been obvious: we have the list and should know what wines we want to try even if it is out of the usual order. I did that with the Rivers-Marie before I tried any whites, knowing it would be gone.
This is a great event that I look forward to every year. I’m glad I could support Laura’s House again this year.
WTF? Larry - Explain yourself!
That Tercero pinot was great. One of my favorites of the day.
Perhaps the easiest way to address pouring size is to take a picture of what 1 ounce looks like in a regular cab glass, print out a bunch with some verbage like “This is what 1 ounce looks like. Don’t pour more than this in your glass” and post them all over the house. That’ll get the message out to attendees.
NICE!
Or get glasses made with pour lines on them…
Gang, some of you liked the MODEL FARM wines. That’s cool, as they were a discovery for me last year when I visited Kutch. The Model Farm wines are made by Joanna Wells, who is Jamie’s assistant. She is closely partnered with Jamie to produce his wines and when we visited, he was an advocate for Joanna to show her wines, too. I preferred the 2014, and still do, as it has a distinct and cool black pepper note in the aromatic that I enjoy a lot. I do hope that Joanna and/or Jamie have seen your comments and that they have enjoyed knowing that some of you liked the wine, too.
As a call out to women in this industry of wine, those who are in the winery/winemaking endeavor, you have my full support and I want to continue to give women a voice in Falltacular. Women deserve a voice and need allies in our society, to have the same shot at success and their way forward. With Joanna, with Rachel Silkowski (RASI) and even other women who I have yet to meet, you also have an equal place here in our event. Contact me if you would like to learn about the event, to be a part of it with your craft in 2019.
Thank you all again for the ongoing feedback about the event. Jill and I look forward next year to seeing you again.
Part of the fun about the 14 Model Farm, too, is that so little of it was made—5 barrels, I believe. So extra-special that Joanna and Sean shared some with the group.
I’ll email Joanna to make sure she knows about the thread.
Mike
We have already made reservations for our dog at the dog sitter’s for 2019. I think JoAnn and I are approaching the 10 year mark – don’t know for sure. The weather was perfect. The friends were perfect. The wine and food were perfect. And the cause is perfect. And, of course, sitting on the beach one afternoon as a break from our weather is a bonus.
Thanks to all the winemakers, attendees and of course Frank and Jill for another reason for us to fly West.