O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122la! Dinner 3 came and went, but not before 18 gringos and gringas descended upon Dave and Lorea\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s beautiful home to sample the some of the best (and some only decidedly decent) of what Spanish growers have to give us using red grapes. We had a fine turnout of east coasters, including our host Dave Morgan, Gary Savoy, Nick Bumstead, Jason Krebs, Jim Meskauskas, Kevin Webb, Stephanie Vautravers, Adrienne Skinner, John Piccone, Paul Debraccio, Michael Hirshoren, Mark Westlake, and myself. Ad:tech was in town as well, so we got \u00e2\u20ac\u02dclucky\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and had some serious West coast presence in form of Steven Comfort, Norm Page, Scot McLernon, and Rich Johnson. And from even further west (although some might arguably say far east), \u00e2\u20ac\u0153TK\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Tanemura came in from Japan.<\/p>\n
Now, although we have made our best attempts to put together tasting notes from our previous two events (dinner 1<\/a>, dinner 2<\/a>), we were very fortunate to have the ultimate wine scribe, Steven Comfort, attend this event, and Robert Parker might call his note taking and posting efforts from the evening<\/a> \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a prodigious effort, possibly the best of the vintage.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Were you too inebriated to remember your Priorat from your Rioja? Well, look no further than Steve\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s notes to understand what you were drinking, why you were drinking it, how much you spent (and how much your peers spent\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6or did not), and what unofficial ratings were bestowed upon your wines. The average cost-per-bottle of the evening (with 21 bottles consumed) was $49 with a range from $11 – $120\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6you know who you are and what you brought \ud83d\ude09 Truly, Comfort’s notes are not to be missed<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n Nick wound up as the winner of the evening for best in show, followed by Stephanie. Coincidentally, they both brought R. Lopez de Heredia Vina Tondonia Gran Reserva Rioja, albeit from different years (Nick a 1985, Stephanie a 1987). Both were also decanted (Nick\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s at his wine shop, Chambers Street Wines<\/a>, Stephanie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in a decanter at the house), and both have a style not unlike the great Grand Cru Burgundies (see Comfort\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s notes for further details), so I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help but wonder if a) some of the other wines in our group would not have shown better with some decanting of their own, and b) we are so accustomed to French wines that they steer our palates towards their essence. But these questions are part of what these dinners are all about; tasting some of the world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s great wines from various regions with great people and enough sober notes taken during the evening to reflect back on the ones you want again.<\/p>\n Our next and last event of 2006 will take place in exactly one month\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time on December 14th at Paul Debraccio\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s home. The theme is world-class Barolos, and we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re in for a treat this evening, for the west coast wine group is also having their December event on the same night, so we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll have a simulcast broadband-enabled two-way messaging toast. The first taker for 2007 looks to be Adrienne in late Jan\/early-Feb. Details will follow for that event as well.<\/p>\n