Quick, in which year was the famous Paris wine tasting that saw the previously unheralded California wine industry pull off a shocking upset victory against well established French vintners? Yes, the stunning victory which is to American wine as the "Miracle on Ice" is to U.S. hockey? You wine aficionados who find the question so simple that you are chortling Bordeaux out your noses, simmer down and have a seat in the back. For the rest of you, the answer will be revealed...
Thursday I attended the First Annual VC-Entrepreneur Wine Taste-Off. Many thanks to Noah Kagan of Entrepreneur27 and Bottlenotes for putting together a creative, fun, and well-organized wine-tasting smackdown. Kudos also to 
Michael Arrington of TechCrunch for hosting the event in his home. The Paris wine tasting question posed above was one of many fun challenges given to the assembled guests.
The genesis of the challenge: Noah had put together a VC-entrepreneur mixer previously that was well received, so he wanted to do it again, but in a more elegant style. Enter Bottlenotes. Bottlenotes, as I've mentioned previously, is a wine delivery service that specializes in off-the-beaten path and hard-to-get selections. Alyssa Rapp, Bottlenotes CEO, worked with Noah to create a friendly contest that would allow venture capitalists and entrepreneurs to both cooperate and compete.
The challenge: the crowd broke into teams of around 6 people. Each team consisted of both VCs and entrepreneurs, with the possibility of a team prize (hence VC-entrepreneur cooperation), but also the average score for all entrepreneurs was compared to that of the VCs (creating an overall VC-entrepreneur competition). Round 1 challenged us to identify the region. It was tricky right from the get-go, as the first selection was a Hawkes Bay (New Zealand) Chardonnay disguised as a Burgundy due to its slight minerality. Fortunately I had just acquired Frenchman Jeff Clavier from another team in exchange for a running back to be named later. Jeff knows a Burgundy when he tastes one, and quickly scored by overturning our team's decision to go with Burgundy and convincing us it was indeed from Hawkes Bay. Later rounds challenged us to identify varietal and price ($12.99, $38.99, or $79.99?). Check out the menu of the selections generously donated by Bottlenotes.
Final score (average out of a possible 6 points): entrepreneurs 2.4, VCs 3.2. Yes, bring on the well-deserved humor about how the VCs lounge around sipping wine whilst the entrepreneurs are busy building companies! If the scores were reversed, I would be seriously concerned about the health of the Valley. Indeed there are interesting businesses getting built by the high quality entrepreneurs at the event; some of the startups represented were MyBlogLog, Slide, OmniDrive, Renkoo, HotOrNot, and Trinity investee Identity Engines.
The food was solid! Highlights included stuffed shrimp on cucumber rounds, good quality smoked salmon, and (ho ho!) blintzes topped with sour cream and caviar. For dessert the Croze cognac-fortified port was accompanied by chocolate-dipped strawberries, chocolate truffles, and cake. Knowing that I am a foodie, Noah made sure to introduce me to the caterer, Christie Barrett West of Gramercy Park Catering, so that I could personally express my deep gratitude and kiss her hand directly because Noah hates it when I do that to him.
The year of the great American wine victory? 1976. The blind tasting was done in conjunction with American Bicentennial celebration activities in Paris.
Great write up except you got something wrong. I love my hand being kissed like the godfather;)
noah
Posted by: noah kagan | September 05, 2006 at 10:33 AM