techteach

@alc13 Cheese or pudding? That isn’t a hard decision if chocolate is involved.

@Rothko1 What a great idea! We seem to manage to drink a bottle with dinner since we eat early and take it with us to what ever follows dinner.

@exlondoner I love doing all of the courses so we split almost everything. I also order smaller portions, which by day 2 our servers have figured out. DH would order salad and skip dessert which is the opposite of my preference!

I called my Cunard TA today in hopes she could help me learn details on the First Growth Wine Flight. Unfortunately I didn’t learn anything we can’t read on-line. She did say, “it all depends upon how many people sign-up for it.” That sounds like my idea of having it served at dinner is not an option. We will try to book it on-board at the end of June and I’ll report back. In the mean-time remember that life is too short to drink bad wine. (Bad wine as defined by the person consuming it…to avoid comments that could get us in trouble with @Host Hattie)

I was glad I had a large shopping bag to haul laundry between cabin and launderette.

Mouton Cadet sounds familiar from a long long time ago, I’ll have to ask my DH. But, I’m glad it was good enough to warrant a case purchase. Will you cellar it for very long? I was going to ask you if there are traditionally specific food items we should request with the first growth tasting on the QM2 in June.

@D&N The wine was wonderful, and so were the short ribs. It was a 2012, smooth and rich with soft tannins from the very beginning. I wish I could remember the flavor profile, but that was last night and we didn’t actually discuss it, we just drank it and enjoyed while watching the grandsons play.

Short ribs tonight with…yum.

Are you doing it @Host Hattie? If so, is there a way for you to see where you are in the process? Example: you make an offer, can you then see that it is pending? rejected? Which levels of cabins were available? Were there grill suites?

Oh @Victoria2 I’ll be happy to bring the wines.

@Rothko1 Re-organizing my sewing room and look what I found!

@Rothko1 We really aren’t tawny port fans. I made the mistake of buying him a ???Kotko??? can’t remember, and it wasn’t a big hit. Currently on the bar…

We talked about it for our grandsons, but storage is the issue. For years we paid for off-site storage, but then we’d need a bigger locker, or the place would go out of business, or would move. The Vin has paid for itself. We’ve thought about buying another one for the port but I don’t know where we’d put it.

@Rothko1 Nice! DH is the real port collector - he gets 2 bottles for Christmas each year, one for long term and one for short term. There was a wine merchant in Portland, Oregon, who bought cellars from the local wine owners and he always had old vintage port. Alas, he went out of business during Covid. (I prefer Insignia to Bacchus…)

@Rothko1 We’ve been collecting Insignia since 1986. We visited the winery and had an arranged a tasting. As we were leaving I said, “You know, you really should start a club.” Her reply was, “well what would float your boat?” I replied, “each year I get one bottle of Insignia and one bottle of Bacchus.” We are founding members. Which ports do you collect? Everyday whites…

@D&N Sell them for storage? Really. We get them in shipments of sparkling and recycle them.

@D&N I just shared your pictures with DH. Seattle is on a seismic fault line and I think your storage would handle the shaking well.

@exlondoner I too wish you were near enough to drop in for dinner. @Victoria2 would also be invited and several others.

Did the bidding thing with Celebrity last summer. I bid over $1,000. per person and did not get the bid. I really didn’t like the anticipation. In most cases you don’t find out about the upgrade until 2 days prior to sailing.

@D&N I’ve taken a picture of your questions and we will be asking some of the same. We are hoping to have it as a pairing with dinner and we plan to share. I’ll probably order a white and a red by the glass on the side. I’m going to call prior to sailing to let them know our plan. How clever of you to use the shipping containers! We have 3 sections. #1 - Long Term in a warmed/cooled wine fridge that holds about 300. We have a few bottles of 1986 Mouton we bought on futures for $99. in it and lots of Joseph Phelps Bacchus and Insignia. During the last recession Beringer sold us their Howell Mtn. Private Reserve for as little as $50. so I stocked up. DH also keeps his port in wine fridge. #2 is under the stairs on real wooden racks and it’s divided into The Big Pinot Rack, The Little White Rack, The Washington/Oregon Rack, The California Rack and The Little Red Rack. #3 is in the coolest part of the basement against cement walls and is called the Ready Rack. Any wine on that rack can be consumed at any time. Unfortunately we still have boxes stacked from shipments that arrive direct from the wineries as part of club membership. All bottles are tagged and info is entered onto a spreadsheet. The picture shows the tags of wines consumed in the last week. We dream of visiting France and the wineries after DH retires.

@Rothko1 @NE John I just got an email from our wine merchant offering Dominus Estate 2019 for $325. I check the QM2 wine list and the 2011 is $325. On the Washington list they have the Kung Fu Girl Riesling for $50. and it runs $25. in the store here. We drink it with spicy stir-frys.

@NE John We are sailing on Oceania for the first time in September so I’ve been following the Oceania boards and they also have great debates over the dress code and violations of it including pictures of people! I’m glad our threads haven’t come to that.

Agreed with too much oak in some of the CA wines and I thought we were through with malolactic fermentation! We thought the prices were reasonable and $25. for corkage is low compared to what we pay in Seattle/Las Vegas. We are excited to see 3 wines from England on the list and plan to have them all 3 opened for lunch on our first real day. We want to try them side-by-side and the sommelier has always done a great job of keeping the bottles for the next meal. I see you mentioned the Laurent Perrier. Champagne makes me sleepy…but I did enjoy a glass of their rose, followed by a nap!

Grills lounge has make your own speciality coffee machine.

Seattle is a pretty radical city and we’ve raised minimum wage and many, if not most, restaurants now add 18% gratuity automatically. @KeithErnest makes an interesting point regarding % of the bill. If not by percentage then how would it be determined? Would each course ordered be assessed a surcharge? I guess would just like to see it figured into the real cost of the meal and included in the price. Hamburger vs. Prime Rib with a sauce. Very different time and skill level required.