Regrets, I’ve had a few
A guest at my dinner should have an amazing time whether they drink or not, that goes without saying. But the 6sensory Supper I performed 20 times at 6sense had one activity where it would be great if everyone drank. The dinner concept revolved around one’s “six senses”: sight, smell, taste, touch, hearing, and then, of course, “the sixth sense” (seeing dead people).
The second course focused on the sense of smell, and the activity involved cute, little wine aroma kits sold by Le Nez du Vin, specifically, the 6 Aroma kit. The box contains 6 small, numbered vials filled with a liquid that smells like a scent you’d find in wine along with a booklet that lists each scent, its characteristics, and which types of wines you’d commonly taste or smell that scent.
The first two vials in the kit represented grapefruit and pear, respectively. For each dinner, I tried to find a wine on the restaurant wine list whose tasting notes mentioned both pear and grapefruit, usually a Sauvignon Blanc/Sancerre-type wine. If I couldn’t find one, I’d bring the 2021 Cakebread Cellars Sauvignon Blanc in my luggage. Here are the tasting notes from the winery:
Our 2021 Sauvignon Blanc opens with aromas of fresh sweet citrus, grapefruit, and melon before revealing complex notes of green pear, freshly cut hay, and stony minerality. Light-bodied and elegant on the palate, a beautiful through line of bright, citrusy acidity defines the wine with vibrant flavors of ripe melon, grapefruit, and citrus zest before the smooth, refreshing finish.
The guests, however, did not know what the first two scents were. I’d ask them to open the first vial, sniff it, and keep their guess to themselves until the count of three when everyone would shout out their guesses at the same time. On a typical night, a few of the guests would identify the scent as grapefruit. I’d then ask them to taste some of the wine, and with their brains primed for the scent of grapefruit, see if they could taste it. Then, we’d repeat the process for the second vial, pear. Usually, fewer guests could identify the pear. The point: alcohol was literally infused into this part of the dinner such that it’s awkward for someone that doesn’t—or isn’t currently—drinking.
At the very first, internal dress rehearsal of the 6sensory Supper, I knew one of my co-workers was pregnant and would not be drinking. So that she would not feel left out, I reached out to the bar director days before the dinner and asked if he could whip up a mocktail that had some grapefruit and pear in it, not a common cocktail combination. In fact, most bars don’t keep grapefruits around as Greyhounds are a popular drink these days, and even fewer bars are going to stock pear liqueur. Given days to prepare, this bartender nailed the drink (although I believe they ended up serving it to her too soon, and perhaps even hinting at what was in it, but it was fine).
My regret, then, is that I did not prepare for this eventuality at future dinners. In all, I can remember only a handful of guests that did not drink out of almost 200 that experienced a 6sensory Supper, including one more pregnant woman at the last one I performed. I should have packed a fresh grapefruit and a small flask of pear liqueur for each city (just enough to make 1-2 mocktails). It will haunt me until the end of days.
