Tastings & Events
The weekly dinner
Tuesdays at seven, since the Wine Club convened in 1981
Every week a region, a flight and a menu to match, announced in Bill’s newsletter with an announce, a reminder and a last call. Seats go to the list first; the phone gets the rest.
The wire
This summer, as Bill announced it.
Subject lines verbatim from the newsletter archive, capital letters and all. Each one opens the actual email. The reputation holds: as entertaining as it is informative.
The full archive →July 21, 2026
ALPS TO ETNA — THE BEST OF MOUNTAIN-GROWN GRAPES FROM ITALY, WITH FOODS TO MATCH
Dolomites, Val d'Aosta and Mount Etna in one flight. The last call went out the night before, as it always does.
July 14, 2026
LOIRE SAUVIGNON BLANC — SANCERRE & POUILLY-FUMÉ W/ FRIED OYSTERS, MONKFISH, LOBSTER BISQUE AND TEXAS QUAIL
Two villages, one river, and the kitchen's whole seafood register behind them.
July 1, 2026
LOBSTERS & CHAMPAGNE — A BELATED FOURTH OF JULY TRIBUTE TO THE FRENCH, FROM LAFAYETTE & ADMIRAL DE GRASSE TO DE TOCQUEVILLE
Only Bill footnotes a lobster dinner with the Battle of the Chesapeake.
June 28, 2026
CHABLIS & FRIED OYSTER EXTRAVAGANZA — “BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE”
Affordable Chablis with fried oysters, fresh lobster and veal short ribs.
June 21, 2026
EIGHT NORTHERN RHÔNES FROM ST-PÉRAY TO CONDRIEU; MIXED SEAFOOD SCAMPI W/ LOBSTER BISQUE & TEXAS ELK
Eight bottles up the river valley, elk off the oak grill.
Source: the Tastings newsletter archive, July 2026. The rhythm never changes: announce, reminder, last call, sold out.
This has been going on a while
October 1999: a Barboursville Cabernet Franc release dinner. Five courses, a four-vintage vertical, seventy-five dollars all in.
That menu survives in the house archive, alongside the Annual Champagne Tasting and two decades of Bill’s writing. The dinners never stopped; the envelope just became an email.
Seats go to the list first
Two or three notes a week: the dinner, the flight, and whatever Bill feels like saying, which is the good part. A subscriber’s review: “there is always something to learn and they are not pushy.”
Or call 434-293-3663. Someone who knows will answer.
From the wall · recent seasons
Manzone Barolo dinner
The anchor Barolos, poured through a full dinner. November 2024.
White Burgundy: Jean-Marc Pillot
Chassagne at the center. November 2024.
Trespass Winery with Donny Gallagher
The owner at the table. December 2024.