Saturday Sept 17

Post date: Sep 8, 2011 12:32:21 AM

How do you find extraordinary wines? Find out at this FREE event.

There is no reliable count on the number of wineries in the world. Most experts agree that it is well north of 500,000. Coupled with the number of varietals per vineyard, vintages and vineyard specific bottling, how does a consumer find extraordinary value wines from such a huge selection? On September 17th the ABNN Wine Lovers group will have a wine tasting given by one of the top tier importers in the United States, Mr. David Raines of Vineyard Research.

David has been in the wine industry for over 25 years and has grown to be respected by restaurateurs at Eastern Standard, B&G Oysters, Craigie Street Bistrot etc. for his ability to uncover the small artisanal wines that don’t get the attention of the major distributors. David goes right to the source and has logged over 8,000 ground miles in Europe alone seeking out these extraordinary values.

He is driven by the never-ending quest to learn why wines taste the way they do, why one hillside produces great wines in one year and the adjoining one does so in another, which factors determine the quality of Riesling in Germany and which others determine the quality of Gamay in Beaujolais. He searches for which techniques the best growers use in every region, both in the field and in the cellar. His field research is supplemented by drinking (or at least tasting) 3,000 to 4,000 wines per year as a way of at least approximating a set of conclusions to these unanswerable questions.

ABNN’s friend Chris Saia at West Concord Liquors, 1216 Main Street in Concord, will host the tasting. His store is close to the West Concord train station in the same shopping plaza as Vincenzo’s restaurant. The tasting will be FREE of charge (Thank you Chris and David). However, the private tasting room is compact so we ask you to respond to the eVite so that we have an accurate count of our guests. The tasting will be held from 7-8:30 PM. There is plenty of free parking at the shopping center. As always we encourage you to responsibly enjoy the wines and to have an appropriate designated driver.

Please RSVP to epmolander@gmail.com or by phone at 978-263-0929 by Thursday September 15th so that we can have an accurate count.