February 13th 2012, Bang: 6:30 p.m. with Dinner to follow at The Space. $45 per person includes Dinner & 5 wines. (plus tax and gratuity)

First come first serve reservations, limited spots, R.S.V.P to jefflatchum@gmail.com

Anyway, my (Andrew’s) initial ramblings on our visits on and off wine tastings (La Remise, Millesime Bio, Valaire, Renaissance, Salon des Vins de Loire, and the aforementioned Dive).

1. Wines in tank, whites in particular, are uniformly delicious. It’s amazing that winemakers actually get around to bottling. Nicolas and I both are convinced that we’d drink it dry first. To reiterate this point, I’ll make it #2 as well.
3. 2010 wines, most still in tank, are uniformly delicious.
4. Once in bottle, the balance of appropriate ripeness and good acidity should make many of the 2010 wines delicious, if never uniformly, once they’re in bottles. This comment applies particularly to Loire wines, where we did much of our tasting.
5. In 2010 in the Touraine, gamay is very pretty. Even in blends, the gamay shines through.
6. In 2009 in the Touraine, gamay is meaty. Even in blends, the gamay powers through.
7. Bernard Baudry’s 2009 wines are stunning. This is no doubt to the talent of this author in picking such ripe, high quality fruit. I’ll take all the credit, and your checks as well.
8. Although I only picked for 1 morning, all of Baudry’s wines are stunning. This is no doubt due to the quality of the grapes I harvested migrating from one tank to all the other tanks in the cellar, kinda like Brettanomyces does.
9. There isn’t Brettanomyces in Baudry’s wines, please don’t misinterpret #8.
10. On the topic of Brettanomyces, it appears our car caught a nasty case of brett at the Dive. This led to a brainstorm of t-shirt slogans for next year’s Dive. The winner: “I got Volatile at the Dive Bouteille.”