The event took place at the Puck building this past Wednesday evening. What can I say? I was disappointed. I recently wrote about a Chateauneuf du Pape event at Tribeca grill that was absolutely fabulous. No crowds, just enough wine & time to taste everything and very friendly people (even the French winemakers).
The kosher event had more wines, much more food, and took place at a time that was more conducive to drinking wine (in the evening rather than the afternoon). I will readily admit that there was a time before I made the transition to the wine industry that I would have been thrilled with an event like this. But given that i am now more interested in evaluating wines and hearing the stories behind the wines, this kosher event fell short.
The hall was too dark to evaluate color. Samples were being poured from older vintages – and I mean whites, which should be consumed young and fresh. The people pouring the samples were clueless as to what they were pouring (the winemaker was sometimes by his wines table – but often was not). And the crowds. ARGHHHH! One never wants to have to PUSH & SHOVE to get a sample, but this event was not for the timid. I tried not to follow the herds by shoving my glass into the pourers face, but I found that it was a strategy that while rude, it was effective. I’m embarrassed to admit it, but I did not want to wait 5-10 minutes with an empty glass. I had a lot of “work” to do, and waiting while others shoved in front of me was going to really hamper my ability to get through as many wines as possible. So I became pushy – NOT something I am proud of. I did however attempt to apologize for my behavior to as many people as possible.
All that said, if you were a wine & food lover without any agenda you should have really enjoyed this event. It was a social scene. There were a tremendous amount of kosher wines, some of which cost about or more than $100 per bottle. There was plenty of food, some of it I hear was pretty good. And there were even some spirits to try. Sadly I did not get a chance to taste the Cognac, but I did try the “kosher for passover” tequila and it was not half bad.
If you were there and enjoyed it, good for you. I hope you discovered a wine which you previously hadn’t been aware of and that you decided you like because you tried it and it worked for YOU!
Now if I can only convince the people throwing the event to allow press/trade to come 3-4 hours early next year rather than only 1 hour early…
Happy KOSHER wine drinking!
WTG
Tags: kosher, kosher for passover tequila, Puck building, Royal wine, wine tasting