Blame it on Rioja

One of the season’s chichiest wine events, the annual New York Wine Experience, spills out onto the carpeted terraces of the Marriott Marquis tomorrow night, inaugurating a three-day extravaganza of oenophilic excess set to the dulcet tones of Lite FM.

Sponsored by the Wine Spectator Scholarship Foundation, the NYWE centers on two nights of ‘Critics’ Choice’ Grand Tastings, offering attendees the chance to taste over 250 90+ Wine Spectator-rated wines from all over the world and rub elbows with the people who made them. In addition, there are optional lectures, lunches, sit-down tastings, and a Grand Award Banquet at the end, which includes a live performance by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons (a target-audience signifier if ever there was one).

An all-inclusive package would set you back $1,845, if there were any tickets left, which there aren’t, for anything.

But if I were to get an invitation, which I suspect I won’t, I’d be plenty pysched. About the wines more than the music. Although, I am not going to lie: when “December 1963 (Oh What a Night)” comes on the radio, and I’m driving, the station generally doesn’t get switched.

Back to the wine. There are some seriously big hitters represented here, including Bodegas Muga and Marqués de Riscal (represent!) and scores more gulpable names: Krug, Gaja, Mouton-Rothschild, Pol Roger, Alvaro Palacios, Vega Sicilia, Beaucastel, Hugel, etc., etc.

I’d also be curious to know (and taste) the wines WS columnist Matt Kramer has chosen for his “Wines of My Heart” seminar at 10:30 a.m. Friday, a line-up billed as “wines that, after having tasted thousands of wines over three decades of professional tasting, Kramer prizes above all others.” I also wish I could sit in on Michel Chapoutier’s red and white Hermitage on Friday afternoon.

Maybe next year. And maybe someone could convince Mr. Shanken to update his music pick. How about Radiohead?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 24th, 2007 at 9:18 pm and is filed under General, Music, New York City, Tastings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.