Last week, I went up to New York for the In Pursuit of Balance tasting. The trip up was a little eventful, but we got to the tasting shortly after 1:00. I went there with Joe Roberts (aka 1winedude), which certainly has some advantages—he not only got me into the tasting, but he also introduced me to plenty of people. There are also a few drawbacks. First, as you might expect, everyone knows him, and they all want to chat him up. I did not ask him about it, but I would think it would get a bit tiring after a while….

There was the woman that he ran into at the restaurant. I told him to invite her over to join us at least in part to dismiss what must have been the impression of everyone in the place (think about it—two relatively clean-cut guys, eating lunch together in a Tribeca restaurant on a Tuesday, drinking a bottle of Prosecco, a bottle of rosé Prosecco–not that there is anything wrong with that). Then there was the guy at the check-in who grabbed his ear for about ten minutes while I was looking to get my drink on.

That brings us to the second disadvantage. I am a pretty hard guy to ignore—I am 6’4” and weigh, well let’s just say ”around” 200 pounds. During the tasting, though (starting with the guy at the reception), it seemed that people were actively ignoring me as if I were holding out my glass asking for money at an intersection. Once they saw the Dude, I instantly became invisible.

Yes, I am a bit of a sensitive type.

We eventually got up to the tasting and I realized that I did not have a pen. What a dope. I always try to take some tasting notes at events like this, and I was determined to do an even better job this time, but that would be a problem without a pen. I looked around a bit to try and steal one, but gave up and took the notes on my phone. As many of you know, I use a numerical scale, something that Joe has railed against for some time now. He mentioned again that I should ditch it, but I am bigger than him (as in a 6’4” to less than that sense—not a thedrunkencyclist.com vs. 1winedude.com sense, of course).

Right off the elevator was Ross Cobb. I met him once before, when I was out at Hirsch, and he has become a bit of a rock star in the Sonoma Coast Pinot world. He makes the wines for Hirsch, and has previously worked at Flowers and Williams Selyem among others. He also has his own label, the three he was pouring were $70 and all tiny productions:

We next headed over to Ant Hill Farms.

Joe Roberts

Next was Hirsch where Jasmine was pouring. Joe wanted to see if she would do a quick interview for 1winedude and I wanted to give her some grief for not initially accepting me for the trade tasting. It would probably end up costing me some good karma, but that was a risk I was willing to take.

Jasmine Hirsch

We next hit Failla since I saw that Ehren Jordan was there pouring. Ehren is another rock star in the wine making business and despite having been to Failla countless times, I had never met him (but have never fallen in love with him).

Ehren Jordan of Failla

Domaine de la Côte

’11 Solomon Hills Chardonnay ($33): I was really impressed with this particularly given its entry-level status. 89-91.

Next up Peay Vineyards and Twomey. Still no Andrea, but I did meet Mary Ewing-Mulligan and Ed McCarthy, the authors of Wine for Dummies.

Ed McCarthy