Who & What is the Wednesday Group?

Every Wednesday since 1972 a group of dedicated wine lovers gathers at  private homes of volunteer hosts in the greater Ann Arbor area at 6 pm and tastes, evaluates, and comments on a number of wines brought from Village Corner. Three of the original members continue to participate. The tasting lasts approximately an hour. Party evenings, when attendees bring a bottle and a dish to pass, linger longer.

Presently, 12 to 15 new-to-the-market wines or vintages are evalated each session, averaging $15 per bottle. Attendee cost is $10 per session. The wine may or may not be in current stock at Village Corner. This group provides Dick with valuable and varied opinions which help him keep in touch with non-professional preferences and tastes, cutting through hype and hoopla,  to bring real quality and value for everyone to the wine shelves of Village Corner.

There is often capacity for new participants, either on an occasional or a regular basis. This is not a group of wine snobs. Extensive wine knowledge is not a prerequisite for joining in. Weekly reservations are not required except for the occasional 'Big Bucks'  tasting of wines averaging $40 a bottle. This popular format of 12 wines costs $20 to attend.

Each week, well in advance of the tasting, Dick announces via email to the membership the upcoming venue and list of wines. To join the Wednesday group email list, drop a line to Sally (winerat@villagecorner.com), and she will add your email address.

We present here Dick's notes from recent tastings of the Wednesday Group. He's made very little attempt to dress up his notes. He scribbles them fast and furious while tasting and then enters them into the computer, often without capitalization and with abbreviations galore, but occasionally adding some extra information about the wine region, theme of the tasting, and so on.  If you can't figure out some abbreviation, email me and I'll get a translation! Scores are on a 20 point scale and typically appear at the end of each wine's notes.

To help you decipher these notes a little better, you should be aware that a / separates descriptions of the nose from descriptions of the palate. Nose elements may or may not be matched with corresponding taste elements, in which case 'confirmed' may follow the / mark.

Website readers have asked that I include wine prices in our weekly tasting-note section. These wines may be ordered thru our usual website ordering program  for wines tasted over the past 3 months. Our normal discounts are 10% off a purchase of 6 bottles or more (may be mixed or all one wine). 12% off a full case of one single wine. Early Bird orders in the Newly Available section, 10% off any quantity if ordered by the stated deadline. Wine Club wines are already discounted. Special Offers are likely to have specific price and discount requirements.  

Sometimes no price appears. This situation applies to trade samples (sometimes barrel samples) for which no price is at hand as I go to press. Nonetheless, please convey your interest in these wines (click on the email address below to send us a message), and we'll inform you of the price when it becomes available.

-Dick Scheer

Wednesday Group BLOG consists of each week's notes with no ordering capability.

While the Group has been meeting for well over 40 years, I have limited the historical notes to these years.
If you're really inteested in notes from years back to 2009, I may be able to dig them up for you. Shoot me an email.