Wine column author Jerry Greenfield at the wine weekend. -COURTESY PHOTO
I’ve written several times about different ways we can expand the horizons of our wine world. After all, discovering new delights and sharing them is what the wine life is all about. Recently, I reviewed a wine dinner that I attended with my wife, Debi, but there are many other ways to learn more about and discover new wines and experiences.
I’m referring to an event known as the wine weekend. Several consumer wine organizations stage them around the country and put on display a surprising array of wines from around the world for us to stroll around and sample. For over 25 years we attended the Wine Experience sponsored by Wine Spectator magazine. It’s a three-day series of wine seminars and grand tastings, held in New York every October. James Suckling, a noted wine critic, produces a two-day grand tasting event in various cities around the country, with one in Miami usually held in March or April of every year.
The most recent event, and one that’s at the top of our wine weekend list, is called Vinous Miami, staged by noted wine critic Antonio Galloni every November. We’re still recovering from the last one.
At this event, we and our fellow wine lovers had the opportunity to stroll around the grand ballroom, going from table to table, sampling a selection of over 100 wines from Argentina, Australia, Chile, France (including the delightful and expensive Cristal Champagne), Italy, Spain, and the US. I’ve always wondered how Galloni manages to persuade so many wineries to spend the weekend with him and his guests (like us) and donate and pour so many of their best wines. But his story is a saga in itself.
Although Antonio Galloni was born in Caracas, he grew up in Sarasota, of all places, where his father was a retailer of Italian wines. His college degrees were in the field of music, but he wound up in the investment business and found himself in his company’s office in Milan. That’s all it took.
Back in the US, his newsletter discussing the wines of Italy’s Piedmont region was an instant success. Joining Robert Parker’s team of reviewers at the Wine Advocate, he spent eight years as the company’s Italian wine authority before establishing Vinous, his own internet publication. Since then, he has staged Vinous events in many cities around the US, and our visit last year convinced us that we would faithfully join him back in Miami on an annual basis.
Back to the wines. In addition to the two days of walk-around tastings, Galloni staged master classes: sit-down tasting seminars each day featuring up to 12 samples conducted by the actual winemakers or winery owners.
One seminar featured wines from California’s Moon Mountain district, perhaps not the best-known region in the state, but well worth discovering. A special delight was meeting winery owner Robert Kamen, who followed the advice about how you make a small fortune in the wine business: start with a large one. Turns out that he writes movies, around 22 of them, including “The Karate Kid,” “The Fifth Element,” “Taken,” and all the “Lethal Weapon” films among many others. He invested his generous checks from the movie studios in land on the western slopes of the Mayacamas Mountains and released his first Cabernet vintage in 1999. His Lava Block 2021 Cabernet was a standout at the seminar, along with new discoveries Stone Edge Farm Cabernet 2019 and the 2021 BRION Cabernet.
Other seminars included the 2021 Barolos, the hefty Italian reds made from the Nebbiolo grape, several very prestigious Napa Valley Cabernets from the 2022 vintage, and a profile of 12 New World Chardonnays from Australia, Oregon, California, and a few other areas.
If this isn’t a great way to discover new wines and regions, please tell me what is. We’ll be sure to get early tickets to the event next November, and please pay a visit to vinous.com for Galloni’s latest articles and information on his other wine events around the country.
While you’re doing that, enjoy some more of our latest discoveries.
Jerry Greenfield. -COURTESY PHOTO
Goose Ridge Cabernet Columbia Valley 2022 ($46) Rich, dark flavors of blackberry, plum, and blueberry enhanced by mocha, vanilla and toasted oak. Wine Whisperer rating on a scale of 100 – WW 93
Goose Ridge Revelation Rose 2024 ($13) – A steal at this price, with bright strawberry, raspberry, and watermelon. An interesting blend of Syrah, Merlot, Grenache, and other varietals. WW 88
Jerry Greenfield is the Wine Whisperer, a wine writer, consultant, and educator. His books, “Secrets of the Wine Whisperer” and “Ask the Wine Whisperer” are available on Amazon.
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