Monday, March 2, 2009

Snooth Open (Those Bottles) Night


If opening one special bottle of wine is event-worthy (see Open That Bottle Night below), what about opening 31 special bottles? That was how many wines were poured during the marathon wine–tasting and dinner I attended at the cozy art deco room of the North Square Restaurant in the Washington Square Hotel in the heart of Greenwich Village.
This Open That Bottle Night event was organized by Snooth, an all-around online wine destination where you can log your favorite wines, access other folks’ tasting notes, join groups, make friends and search their huge wine database. The event was also loosely tied to Twitter Taste Live, an online event so geeky that it’s hard to begin to describe, but, in brief, a lot of us had iPhones in hand and were whipping out micro-tasting notes, and, when the ability to quickly summarize wines failed us, snarky comments and photos.
One of the most enjoyable parts of the evening was dining with such a witty and charming group, including Robbin from Vineyard Adventures and her wine-loving friends, Catherine and Scott, as well as Snooth staff Mark and Gregory, music biz guy by day and chef by night Erik, wine educator Ben, and assorted other great peeps.
The wine ranged from very good to outstanding. In a night of truly wonderful reds, old Barolos in particular stood out, the wine that made the biggest impression on me was white, a 1991 Eyrie Vineyards chardonnay from the Oregon's Willamette Valley. The same climate that produces wonderful Pinot Noirs, just like Burgundy, can apparently produce spectacular age-worth Chardonnays, just like Burgundy. With a hard candy butterscotch flavor, deep gold color and intense buttery aromas, this was a chard that aged beautifully.
Our dinner was delicious, too. My lambchops were juicy and perfectly medium-rare, and our assortment of appetizers included a chopped tuna tartare served with creamy guacamole and crunchy sprouts—a really well-executed dish.
So, cheers to Snooth for organizing a great event and to all the attendees for sharing such wonderful wine.

3 comments:

  1. Hi Diane,

    It was a pleasure meeting you at the OTBN dinner, and I enjoyed your blog entry about it.

    Although I'm an educator (computer science professor) and am a wine (more specifically mature Bordeaux) aficionado, I can't be called a "wine educator".

    -Ben

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  2. Great meeting, sorry it took so long to finally post here, life's been crazy. I'm the Eric you met at this tasting. It was great meeting you and I've been enjoying your blog. What an awesome night this was. I have to say my favorite was actually the 1994 Riesling, which is saying a lot from a lover of Barolo. Great write up.

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  3. Ben, thank you for visiting the blog--sorry I mixed up your career and your passion.
    Eric, it was great to meet you as well. How wonderful that you're enjoying the blog--it's always so nice to hear from a reader.
    Until next time,
    Diane

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