Saturday, September 19 · ESL Clubhouse · Atlanta, GA
The 2026 ESL Wine Tasting
Ten grapes, two bottles of each, whites first and then the reds, lightest to fullest. Every bottle stayed in a bag until the end of the night. Here is what was in the bags.
Three gaps in the list.
We ran two bottles short. No second Chardonnay and no second Malbec turned up, so those two grapes got poured once instead of twice.
The second Pinot Noir is a different story. Erin brought it and we drank it. I just could not find the bottle the next day to write it down, so it is the one wine on this page with no name. If you know what it was, email me and it goes on the list.
- varietals
- 10varietals
- bottles poured
- 18bottles poured
- bottles short
- 2bottles short
- still a mystery
- 1still a mystery
What we poured
In the order we tasted them. Two bottles of the same grape side by side, which was the whole point.
Whites
1Pinot Grigio
2Sauvignon Blanc
3Albariño
4Riesling
5Chardonnay
Never turned up
No second Chardonnay turned up, so this one got poured on its own.
Reds
6Pinot Noir
Poured, never identified
I lost this bottle and Erin might know.
7Gamay
8Malbec
Never turned up
No second Malbec turned up, so this one got poured on its own.
9Sangiovese
10Cabernet Sauvignon
Archived · the original invitation
This is the page as it stood before the tasting, kept for the record. Sign-ups are closed and the form below no longer does anything.
The details
- When
Saturday, September 19, 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm.
Bring your bottle by 6:30 pm so we can chill it.
- Where
ESL Clubhouse, Atlanta, GA.
- Babysitting
$10 per kid. The sitters are at a house nearby, not at the clubhouse.
Address to come. Tell us how many kids on the form and we will book enough sitters.
- Cost
$10 per person plus one bottle each. Two of you? Sign up once, pick two different varietals, and bring a bottle of each.
Venmo @Gary-Williams-6 or pay cash on the night.
- Food
Charcuterie boards and plenty of bread for everyone, and water out all night.
That is what your $10 covers. Come hungry.
How this works
We doubled up the varietals: ten grapes, two bottles of each. Every varietal gets poured twice, so you can compare two versions of the same grape side by side.
The pour math works out. A 750ml bottle holds about 25oz. At 1.5oz per taste that is 16 people per bottle, so two bottles cover all twenty with room for seconds on the wines people like. Across ten flights it comes to roughly three glasses each over three hours. Water and bread stay out all night.
Spend $18 to $25 on your bottle.
A $7 bottle next to a $60 bottle makes the comparison useless. Keeping every bottle in the same price range is what makes the side by side work.
Sign up
Before you come
- Bottles by 6:30 pm
- Whites should be 45 to 50°F and reds 60 to 65°F. A room in Atlanta in September sits well above both. Drop your bottle off early so we can get the temperature right. We run two coolers, one holding the whites and one bringing the reds down.
- Guided first, then stations
- We taste the first three or four wines together. Everyone pours the same wine, we talk about it for two minutes, then move on. After that the rest go out on stations around the room and you go at your own pace.
- $10 per person, $10 per kid
- $10 covers the charcuterie boards, plenty of bread for everyone, water all night, and the glassware. Sitters are $10 per kid at a house nearby. Venmo @Gary-Williams-6 or pay cash on the night. Nothing is due in advance.
- Glasses, scorecards, and the reveal
- We provide glasses, scorecards, tent cards, the charcuterie boards, and the bread. Every bottle stays in a bag until the end. Score each wine 1 to 5 with a “would buy again” box. We tally the results and name a winner in each flight before the reveal.