Two private Joseph Jewell events in one day? You bet! (post 2 of 2)

So, after the absolutely lovely meal and tasting we all had on the 18th at Mediterranea (and the more intimate hang I had afterwards at Argosy with Adrian and his good friends), there was still plenty of activity to come on the following day.

Now, as I mentioned in my last post, this two-day event was the first undertaking of its kind I had basically planned and overseen from scratch. Truth be told, back in March of this year, my wife and I organized an Arrow&Branch winemaker dinner here in Atlanta at Murphy’s. It was held the night before the High Museum Wine Auction activities began and was designed to help get people hyped up for the official start of that greatly anticipated annual fundraiser (which stands as the largest wine auction in the USA specifically benefitting the arts). However, Michael Ploetz (A&B’s Director of Sales) assisted us with that one-night-only endeavor.

Now, after we’d won that private Joseph Jewell Winery tasting with Adrian Manspeaker and it was time to contact him and start planning out just what form that tasting would ultimately take, I asked if he’d be up for making it into more of a dinner, as I was hoping to tie it into the Sommelier Guild of Atlanta. He was perfectly fine with that. Just a very laid-back and easygoing guy. In fact, as our discussion progressed, he made a point of saying that since he was coming all the way to Atlanta for that event, he’d be happy to work with us on more appearances, if we wanted. Perhaps something more intimate, in a private setting.

This was a very pleasant surprise, and I was eager to be able to spend time with such an established and respected specialty vintner. Dio and I talked it over, and ultimately suggested both a lunch at a restaurant and a separate evening tasting — both taking place the day after the Guild dinner. He said sure, and so Wednesday’s events came about because Adrian was such a nice guy and so generous with his time. Of course, this also got his wines and the story of his winery out in front of more people, and that’s exactly the kind of exposure a smaller outfit is looking for when trying to expand market where their products are note being actively distributed at retail or in restaurants.

It's par for the course at invitation-only meals and tastings of this sort that if anyone in attendance wants to take that opportunity to order some wine directly from the producer, they can do so. It’s also not uncommon in these types of situations that they might be extended the same types of discounted prices normally only given to fans and supporters already on the winery’s direct mailing list. This is the old-school, face-to-face way that vintners grow their brands, a handful of new customers at a time.

So, for the small companies and specialty winemakers whose work we admire and enjoy, we are always happy to help them out in this way. That’s the important role enthusiasts and aficionados play in the whole wine industry ecosystem. It’s all about helping people out, and in doing so, getting to know the folks behind-the-scenes who bring this culture and this industry to life.

For the final tasting of the second day, Adrian suggested it be accompanied by charcuterie, and asked if we could recommend a restaurant that could supply an impressive assortment that would go nicely with his wines. Immediately, I thought of the Spotted Trotter. It’s one of the best butchers in the area, and it’s within walking distance of our home! That sounded both great and easy to him, so he called them and ordered a charcuterie board for 25 people, to be picked up on the 19th. The butcher shop closes at 4 p.m., so as long as we arrived that day at any time before then, the board would be waiting and ready.

We figured we’d have lunch at noon and the evening tasting at 7 p.m., and since it’s only about a 30-minute drive from Le Bilboquet (where we’d be dining) to our neighborhood, there would be time after we ate to head there, grab the board from the Spotted Trotter, and then relax and rest up a bit before the final tasting.

Now, here’s where I need to explain something about how and where I choose to store a large portion of my wine collection (and why). It’s called Vine Vault. Don’t you love that name? It’s a serious, members-only wine storage facility in the Buckhead area of Atlanta. Individuals can rent private lockers there, and I have for about a year and a half now. From my standpoint, there are two very good reasons to use that facility.

One is that your wine stays at the proper temperature and is off-site from your home. Unlike some folks, I don’t have a large wine cellar in my house, and it’s very comforting to know my wine is all safely and securely stored there under ideal, monitored conditions. Additionally, whenever you order wine online, you can simply have it shipped directly there! It’s super convenient, as I don’t have to fret over keeping an eye on tracking the shipments or being home when my juice arrives. The employees sign for the wine when it shows up, and then immediately put it in cold storage for you. Once I started using Vine Vault, I completely stopped having wine shipped to my house, and it’s been a load off my mind.

But the other cool perk of using their service is that they have a tasting room on-site which holds around 25 people. It’s literally ready for a gathering, with all the appropriate glassware for different varietals, decanters, wine openers, everything you might need. Once you finish your tasting, you just leave the glasses off to the side, and the staff washes them for you. How much easier could things be? Plus, as long as no one else has already reserved that space at a particular date and time, members can use it at no extra charge. It’s an amenity. So, that’s my vault. And the reason I am explaining all of this is not only to give a shout out to a cool business I recommend to anyone in the Atlanta area, but also as background to explain what transpired just before the start of this two-day event.

Dio and I really love Le Bilboquet. It’s quite well-known and easily one of our favorite restaurants in the city. We do date nights there and have attended Guild events in that room. The food is amazing, the place is in a beautiful location, they’ve got both indoor and outdoor seating, it’s full of light, the staff is very cool, and they have a great wine selection on hand. It’s like a French brasserie, and there are a few other locations throughout the USA. So, we worked alongside their event people to set up a special area for us that day, and, if you’re keeping score, this is only the second winemaker dinner (in this case technically a lunch) I’ve ever planned.

And guess what? We narrowly avoided what some might see as a catastrophe. Meaning that some of the wines chosen for the meal at Le Bilboquet almost didn’t make it there in time.

It’s a convoluted tale, but long story short: Adrian had selected all sorts of wines for this multi-venue Atlanta showcase. And the ones for the first night’s dinner had been shipped directly to our friend Gary, with the Guild. He was the person who brought them to Mediterranea on Tuesday. But, for the two events on Wednesday which I was overseeing completely by myself, Adrian’s wine selections were sent straight to me at Vine Vault. They arrived several days ahead of time, and — as usual — were checked-in by the staff. Now, because I know from personal experience that sometimes there can be snafus with situations like this (which is a great story - check out this blog post), I did not want to be caught flat-footed come the day of the event. So, even though I knew for a fact that Adrian’s bottles had arrived safely the week beforehand and had been stored properly ever since, I thought I’d better go put my eyes on them ahead of time. Just to be sure.

They were there, all boxed up, just as they had been sent from the winery. And each box was hand-labeled, showing which Wednesday event its contents were designated for — because the lunch at Le Bilboquet was a multi-course meal which Adrian had specifically curated a group of paired wines to accompany. I took the boxes home and opened them to start getting each individual bottle to its most desirable drinking temperature in advance of the meal (a key component to properly enjoying wine, which can be somewhat confusing for folks new to wine), also because heat damage is a real concern when wines are shipped through the mail — especially at this time of year.

That’s when I realized the list of shipped wines Adrian had sent did not correspond to what’s actually been delivered. We’re missing four bottles of Chardonnay, and in their place were four extra bottles of Pinot. They’re all from the same vineyard (Phelps). It’s just that whoever physically packed the boxes in California must have inadvertently grabbed four bottles of the wrong type, without realizing.

Luckily, I caught Adrian on the phone at his tasting room just in the nick of time, and once he understood what had transpired, he was able to grab the proper Chardonnays himself, throw them in a box and check that on his flight to Georgia. This was a very specific wine he’d chosen for the first course of Wednesday’s meal.

Crisis averted!

The folks at the restaurant had really gone the extra mile for our gathering. The setup was gorgeous. They’d printed up custom menus listing his wines alongside their dining selections and had set out champagne buckets with ice (because at the last-minute Adrian had decided to add some of his sparkling Brut Rosé wine). I just started smiling, knowing this was going to be a great experience for everyone.

On the drive to the restaurant, I told Adrian how much I’d enjoyed his Bootlegger’s Hill Vineyard Pinot at the previous night’s dinner, and that it was one of my favorite of all his wines I’d tried up to that point. He had not chosen to feature that wine for Wednesday’s meal, but I suggested we surprise our guests with an extra pour that’s not on the list.

So, we added what I felt was another one of his best Pinots. And to make this happen on such short notice, I called Dio (who’d not left for the restaurant yet) and she grabbed one of our personal bottles of that Bootlegger’s Hill Pinot from our house before leaving for the restaurant.

Once everyone arrives there, we all enjoy his Brut Rosé with charcuterie before the meal proper and she and I introduced our friends to each other, because several of them come from different areas of our lives and thus had never met before. However, each really enjoys wine (even if not all of them are total wine nerds like myself). That allowed Adrian to really go deep into what I might term “higher-level” stories than he probably would normally share at a tasting or dinner with more of a mainstream audience. It was quite fascinating.

You can tell from the photographs it was a wonderful time and everyone was really enjoying themselves. I also noticed that it seemed like a good number of the guests wound up ordering wine from him. So that’s a great outcome, as well.

Surprisingly, the unexpected hit of the meal was his Vermentino. It’s an Italian varietal, and I believe he said there were only 150 acres of it planted in California. People just would not stop talking about it. In fact, this was another one of those rare occasions where even Dio was saying, “I really like this.” I was like, who are you?! Because this may have only been the fifth time I’ve ever heard her say that about wine. But she was sincere, and said, “No, I really like this. I can drink this.” So, that definitely told me we needed to get some for ourselves.

At this point, the meal had been over for a while and as we packed up the leftover bottles, I realized the whole thing had run a bit long. It’s obvious there’s no way we could make it to the Spotted Trotter in time to pick up the charcuterie board for the evening tasting event before they closed for the day. Adrian called the butcher shop, and the staff were extremely accommodating and said they would wait for us to arrive. Luckily, I am very familiar with a lot of the backroads and shortcuts that exist between Buckhead and Reynoldstown. So, we jumped in my car and managed to somehow avoid most of the holiday traffic to get there as fast as possible.

The rest of the day found Adrian and I getting to know each other better over espresso at our house (I make a pretty decent espresso, if I do say so myself), and it felt like a truly special moment to have a winemaker that I greatly respect hanging out at my place, meeting our dogs and discussing our mutual love of wine from Burgundy. It just made me really happy.

We wound up sharing a bottle of a fairly epic white burg that I had on hand, and it turns out his heart is kind of in Burgundy, and he tries to make wines that are similar to and reflect that region. How cool to share one of my best burgs with a noteworthy winemaker that loves that region? This passion of mine, and this blog, are starting to make a noticeable impact in my day-to-day life. They are both leading me in a direction that is not only exciting and unpredictable, but also deeply gratifying.

Later that evening, the two-day event came to a close with an incredibly casual, informal and intimate get-together of around 20 people or so in the tasting room at the Vine Vault.

It was a lovely end to a hectic, but extremely memorable 48 hours. It was great to make a new friend in Adrian, and to share his marvelous wines with other people who mean a great deal to me. I am absolutely certain this will merely be the first of many more events of this sort which I’ll organize from this day forward.