‘ The show must go on’ was the theme of Friday’s night event since Mother Nature decided to drop 6 inches of rain on the area just in time for Golden Vines first [sold out too] wine event.  Given the amount of rain you might have thought that many people would have stayed home but instead anyone who cancelled had a replacement quite quickly.  Sal Cucullo chef/owner of The 808 Bistro in Scarsdale provided the food which was paired with a specific wine from our portfolio.  The WICC did an amazing job and if you have never been there for an event you are missing something special.  The building was formerly a bank but now contains lecture halls, a research library, a demonstration kitchen, dining room, wine cellar which will be the site for future events…  In a nutshell not your typical suburban community center by a long shot!  We showed wines from regions of Italy covering the South, Central and North and showed the difference in styles given the history, landscapes and people.  

With Ben in town for a week in early February and much business to take care of together I thought it might offer an opportunity to have a celebratory dinner together at my home at the end of the week before Ben headed back home to France. Though the night was postponed a day due to snow and we did lose some invited guests with the postponement we were still able to get some friends over for a fun evening. We decided to invite some old friends in the wine business to share some food and to hopefully taste some great wines. We served a mix of wines we had already decided to import as well as some wines that we had yet to make a decision about. We did make sure that we did not tell our guests which was which in order to get unbiased opinions regarding all the wines. The dinner by all accounts turned out well with a pork shoulder ‘pernil’ style serving as the main course but this evening belonged to wine. Overall the hits seemed to be the wines from Francis Lechauve in Burgundy, the Givry’s from Domaine Parize, the Tuscan wines from Montemercurio, and the wines from the L’armangia estate in Piemonte.