.comment-link {margin-left:.6em;}

alcotourism

Have liver, will travel

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Nobody Talks About Wine Club


Hello, it's been a while. But we're ready to kick this thing back into gear. While not necessarily tourism-related, I thought I could post a few thoughts on a really stupid, but fun thing I'm fomenting. Maybe you can help name it.

A lot of people have wine clubs, where they get together every once in a while to eat exotically-prepared offal and quaff wines that Eric Asimov told them to drink (I'm tired of demonizing Robert Parker—let's get after another influencer for a while).

The problem with "wine clubs"— Asimov calls his a "dojo"—is that, like a gang of ninjas, you probably can't join one. These clubs are usually for well-heeled braggarts who like to boast about rappelling into a guarded fortress to cat-burgle the bottle of 1787 Lafitte they brought to the party (which, by the way, tastes like ancient cat piss, though you'll never admit it).

I've got a new job in the past few months (one of the reasons for the very light posting), and sniffed out a few wine fanciers in the ranks. As we've rapped around the water cooler about wine and tourism, it occurred to me that it would be even more fun to do so with stemware in my hand. To save money, and to curb our human tendency toward ostentation, I proposed a price cap—a very fair $20. So, after work on October 25th, we will convene in a convenient conference room, each with a sub-$20 bottle, and have at it. Take this advice if you want to copycat: Always invite the HR guy. If he refuses, you're hosed.

While I would like to solicit feedback about the usual stuff—good bottles under $20, wine club parliamentary procedure, the triscuit-with-wine-conjecture, and so on, there is another issue I'd like help with. We can't just call this "*insert your company here* wine club." How lame. Asimov has a DOJO, for chrisesakes. I thought about calling it "Nobody Talks About Wine Club" in honor of Chuck Palahniuk, but that may be too pop-culturey. I also thought "Sawbuck Wine Club," but that seems to be too much about the money. "NAMBLA" was already taken. So you see, it's tough to start your own wine dojo. Post your thoughts on what we should call the club, and we will faithfully report on the wines we try and the times we had.

—The Alcotourist