Julie Brosterman of Woman & Wine---the intelligent wine website targeting a female audience---asked me to help out with an event she was staging for The Bank of America.
I came up with the concept of Geek wines. I did my ordering from Chambers Street, and at the end of the order I asked, “Do you guys have Yellow Tail?” Tim almost choked on the request. It was an odd one when you put it in the context of the other wines I ordered like ruch and pineau d’aunis. Most favorite wine stores don’t carry that 85-point Yellow Tail so I had to do some legwork. Finally, I hit pay dirt, Astor Place had it. The guy on the phone guilelessly asked me, “What flavors are you looking for?”
”What about shiraz?” I asked.
Buying the bottles I felt furtive--as if buying drugs on the street. Would I be recognized? The checkout woman asked with a wink-wink, "Having a party?"
Four bottles and $21 later I carried them to the event site, a spa on 56th street, not to get pampered and poodled, but to run the dog and pony wine and food pairing; half of the Hedge Fund managers attending the event would get spa-ed while the other half got wined. Then they’d change places.
While the caterers were setting up in the spa’s ‘hair salon.’ I tasted the shiraz. I knew its reputation I knew what Parker said about it. I expected it to be inoffensive. I poured a half-inch into a glass, smelled it. At first sniff the wine seemed clean enough, low on aromatics, then hints of the garbagey rotted fruit came through. I took some in my mouth. The sugary fruit popped out like one of those pieces of gum that squirt in your mouth, explosive and nauseating in a chewy mess. The caterers who were setting up couldn’t get me a receptacle to spit in quick enough. I was confident that my financial world guests would feel similarly.
When my audience arrived I saw they were an enthusiastic bunch, more eager for this experience than I expected. I posed myself as the anti-Parker. “The wines I am going to present, except for one wine, our mystery wine, is off his radar,” I said.
It didn't have the laugh effect I hoped for because only of twenty people in the room only three knew who Parker was.
....TBC
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