WINE TASTINGS
Living in New York, we have the option attend many wine events every month.
Here we list only those public events that we like and are in someway special and/or unique.
Wines and wineries listed below were our show favorites.


WINTER 2011

Gala Italia, February 10, 2011

A small taste of La Dolce Vita with Art, Design, Fashion, Food, Music and Wine Event featuring Italy. Need I say more? I  recommend it highly for a fun date or friendly socializing!

After last week's two massive Italian trade tastings, I decided to explore here a few of the less known and more affordable of the 200 native Italian grapes in addition to concentrating on my favorite region of Tuscany.

    FAVORITE WINE EXPLORATIONS    

     CAMPANIA is largely known for its two famous destinations: Naples and the Amalfi Coast.  Aglianico is one of the three noble Italian grapes and the most famous in the south. I also enjoyed the Falanghina and Fiano from the Rocca Dei Sanniti winery. Falanghina and Fiano are both very light white wines and offer easy drinking as aperitifs.

    PIEDMONT: Scrimaglio Barola DOCG S. Ambrogio 2006 $45 .

    SARDINIA: Meloni Vini, Kre'u Monica DOC Superiore 2005-  The winemaker's and my favorite here among several unique tasting wines.

    TUSCANY
    
    Castello Di Querceto I found to be overall a very good value Chianti winery.

    Vernaccia is the classic Tuscan white. At $22, Casale Falchini Vernaccia di San Gimignano ab Vinea Doni, 2008 is pleasant enough. But beware of their less expensive Vigna A Solatio 2009.  It is half the price but has little of its pleasant flavour!

    Franco Biondi Santi -Tenuta IL Greppo Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Ris `04 $600 
    Ubung macht den Meister (practice makes perfect) -  It was here that Brunello was first produced. This was clearly a GREAT wine.  It tasted clearly superior to their fine          Brunello DOCG 05 $150, and well above the more affordable Ruffino Greppone Mazzi, Brunello DOCG 2004 $60, but is it worth that price?  The answer is simple.  It is like asking how much does owning a yacht cost?  If one has to ask the question, the answer is sadly the questioner cannot afford it!

4th Annual NY Wine Expo February 25-27, 2011

While there were no fine wines, we liked tasting these table wines:

VENUE

While Javits is not my top wine venue, it IS spacious and handles big crowds well. There were a few delightful snacks e.g. Jana cheese and Mexican avocados. However, I would have also liked to have been offered crackers or bread to help clear my palate after so many tastings. One surprising observation was that the very long lines outside of the women's bathroom later in the evening resulted in an occasional adventurous woman in the men's bathroom (ushered by their male companion)!

WHAT I LEARNED 

The second oldest domesticated grape (at least 4500 years) is Marathefiko from Cyprus according to Lambouri Winery. In case you are wondering which is the oldest, I asked. It is Syrah.

There are now 7 DOC in China and more than 45 million+ wine drinkers and these numbers are growing rapidly. China Fine Wine 2008 Dragons Hollow Merlot (along with their Riesling and Chardonnay) is starting to make headway into the US market.  They have a natural marketing target of 38,000 Chinese restaurants. However, while easy drinking and inexpensive ($12), this food/wine pairing does not make great culinary sense to me (yet).

BOTTOM LINE

With over 760 wines from around the world from over 190 wineries there was more than enough to drink!  The guided tastings and introductory wine seminars by popular wine authors and personalities were inexpensive (under $30) and well received.  This mostly young crowd had fun discovering new every day drinking wines. Everyone I saw seemed to be enjoying themselves- No sad faces at all!  Public tastings rule for date night as well as for a girls night out!