Our plane touched down at an ungodly 1:15 am on Thursday morning at Newark Airport.  Within an hour, we had entered Times Square, the belly of the beast.  Wake up call was 7 am, and for the next three days, we were all-aboard Wine Spectator’s New York Wine Experience ride, barely holding on to the reins.

Now in its 34th year, the Wine Experience is a 3-day, relentless onslaught of the finest wines from around the world.  Composed of Grand Tastings, seminars, lunches, and a black tie gala, the event features only wines that have received 90 points or higher from Wine Spectator.  The amount of grape juice with price points of $300-$400 that get tossed around like tinker toys is mind boggling.  But best yet, the actual producers and estate owners are on hand.  Was that Angelo Gaja, himself, pouring his wines?  Yup.  Wait, is Piero Antinori sloshing juice into people’s glasses, personally?  You betcha.

It was one doozy of an event.  After the amount of tannins and acids passed across my poor, helpless palate, I’m now nursing it back to health on an all goats milk diet.

Tags: Angelo Gaja, Chateau Musar, ggadex, NY Wine Experience 2014, Piero Antinori, Prunotto Barolo, Schloss Johannisberg, Washington State Wine, Wine Spectator