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June 5, 2003
A Bonny Night
Last night I went to my first ever "Wine Event." A wine dinner at Nine-Ten with Randall Graham from Bonny Doon Vineyards. Those of you that have been reading my blog since it's inception remember that I used to have "Wine Pick" over there on the left and that Bonny Doon is one of my favorites. Not only is the wine good but the artwork and ideas are equally as funky and right up my alley.
I went to the wine dinner with my good friend, B. I donned my most lovely little black dress, put my hair up and prepared myself for a night completely out of my element. I mean, I'm certainly a wine lover but I'm certainly not one who understands all the nuances that come with being a "wine taster" and I'm not entirely sure I want to be. I became the "beer snob" when I was going through my beer days and it got to the point that I could no longer buy or have an appreciation for those beers I felt didn't meet my standards. That's an expensive kind of taste to have and not always a lot of fun ("What you only have Budweiser, Coors or *gasp* Corona? I'm sorry, I simply cannot ingest that swill.")
We took a cab to be as safe as possible, we arrived early. We had appetizers, first course wines. We were seated and we, pretentious as we are not, were fortunately seated at the table with the winemaker himself along with his wife, his regional manager and a woman whom I took note of early in the evening as, um, shall we say, noticeably different. Dinner was wonderful. The most notable dish being the strawberry risotto paired with the Freisa con Fresa. Strawberry risotto! Amazing. We were fortunate to talk to Randall Graham all evening -- we spoke of kids (having kids and being with someone who has a new baby is instant bonding/discussion material... you just can't go wrong), we spoke of art and wine. What a wonderful evening.
The most interesting shared information to me was the fact that Bonny Doon is going to be converting one of their vineyards into a biodynamic format. Now, I know that half of my readers will recognize biodynamics and I need not go on but for those other, less Waldorfy folks, biodynamics is a type of farming that was developed by Rudolf Steiner... who is also the man who founded Waldorf Education. I'll let The Biodynamic Assocation explain it better than I can and simply say that, while I was impressed with Randall Graham before dinner, hearing that biodynamic farming will be part of his family of vineyards was fairly cool news. I used to get my vegetables from a small locally owned biodynamic farm here and I swear one could taste the difference in the vegetables. Perhaps it was my overly active imagination hoping to justify the cost difference or perhaps there is some truth to the whole matter.
After dinner, B & I adjourned to the bar where we had time for another, not nearly as tasty, glass of wine before we called our cab. While waiting, we entered conversation with the regional manager and ended up coercing him into driving us home. Where we learned many, many more interesting things... on the top of the list that the notable woman was really a porn star. Now, how often does one sit at a table with Randall Graham and a porn star.
Posted by shanti at 5:39 PM | Comments (1)