Introduction

This is a side of the wine business I'd never seen, having only been to Vias and Martin Scott. Lots of well-known brands. Big, high-throughput wine stores that live of RIP's are the main consumers. Most of the people were there to party, though. Glasses were sub-par. The food was terrible for tasting (curry? strong cheese? wtf!!!). Some tables were outside, where the wind was so strong it blew glasses off the table. White wines were chilled to pieces (can't blame the pourers, given the quality of the wine). The level of intellectual discourse was generally low or nonexistent. Periodically the lights would go off, and a huge light/water show would commence, spraying everyone with chlorinated water. In short, it was a total shitshow and very difficult to actually work. A challenge, to be sure :)

NOTE: VINTAGES ARE NOT NECESSARILY EXACT. For the higher-end offerings, vintages were listed. But for many wines no vintage was listed in either the tasting guide or the book, and I neglected to write down the vintages (oversight on my part). But seriously, you'd think an importer would care about vintages.

Flight 1 - Hess Family Wines (2 notes)

Flight 2 - Huneeus Vintners (5 notes)

Flight 3 - Cline Cellars (3 notes)

Flight 4 - Rodney Strong Wine Estates (2 notes)

Flight 5 - Canopy Management Wines (2 notes)

Flight 6 - Moet-Hennessey (7 notes)

Flight 7 - Jordan Vineyard and Winery (2 notes)

Flight 8 - Kobrand Wines (5 notes)

Flight 9 - Constellation Wines (6 notes)

Flight 10 - Trinchero Family Estates (2 notes)

Flight 11 - R&R Marketing, LLC (7 notes)

Flight 12 - Raptor Ridge Winery (4 notes)

Flight 13 - Freixenet USA (7 notes)

Flight 14 - Michael-David Vineyards (4 notes)

Closing

Raptor ridge winery, and some of Freixenet's selections are probably our best bet. To be honest, this is not our world and it should stay that way.