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the company party
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January 06, 2003
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« winter hiatus | Main | Impromptu Dinner Party »
I'm back in town, back at work, and blogging again. I have a few things to say about the holidays, but I realized that I haven't even had a chance to talk about the Company Christmas Party, which happened the day before I went out of town. I'll start there.
The Company Party
Our company party was remarkable for one reason: the wine. The standard Company Christmas party is dominated by people who, if they drink wine at all, feel perfectly comfortable ordering a glass of "the red", which they will inevitably remark is "pretty good" but "a little dry". If you have any taste for wine at all, you are faced with the unenviable task of choosing between the Talus Chardonnay and the Sutter Home Merlot. (The answer to this dilemma is clear: you drink beer.)
Not so this time. The president of our company is a big Burgundy fan, and he knows his wine. When I told him about The Wine House's 25th Anniversary sale, he went nuts. He and I and another wine fan from the company went together to buy wine for the party. When we got there, he said, "We each have $200 to spend. Go get the good stuff."
Mind you, our company only has 25 employees. Expected attendance at the party was less than 50 people. Not all of them are wine fans. In this circumstance, $600 can get you a lot of great wine.
And great wine was gotten. Burgundy was easily the most represented region, providing such wines as the 1999 Domaine Lamarche Grands Echezeaux and the 1998 Domaine Thierry Violot-Guillemard Pommard Rugiens. We also had some great Bordeaux whose names I regretfully do not remember. And there was a concession to California Cabs: someone (not me) bought a bottle of Silver Oak.
The big surprise for me came with the crab cakes. I love crab cakes, and ate them almost exclusively that evening, as there seemed to be a limitless supply. But the Burgundies and Bordeaux were an inappropriate pairing. Fortunately, the company president had had a bit more forethought that ourselves and purchased two bottles of a 1995 Puligny Montrachet -- $80 bottles that were on sale for $50 each. Incredible. Especially with the crab cakes. Fortunately for me, no one seemed to be drinking white wine (although I persuaded several people to try it), so I pretty much had it all to myself. I holed up in the corner, snarfing crab cakes and chugging Puligny Montrachet like I was on death row and it was my last meal.
I just wish I knew which Puligny Montrachet it was. On second thought, it's probably best that I don't know. I might start selling off things I need.
January 6, 2003 in events, old_site, wine | Permalink
