We drove down together with our Good Friends and started the day with breakfast at Harvey's Bakery, easily our cheapest meal of the weekend.
We had a great time at the Boston Wine Expo with our Good Friends. We sampled around 60 wines and had a great time doing it. My Beautiful Wife met Associate Winemaker Richard Sowalsky who is responsible for one of her favorite wines the 1998 Robert Mondavi Winery Cabernet Sauvignon. He signed an empty bottle for her that we barely got past the ever-vigilant security at the show.
I thought it was cool to meet Alain Junguenet, an importer for the Chateauneuf-du-Pape properties. I only tried three of the wines since it was early in the show and I wanted to pace myself. No matter the price ($8, $25, $50) they were absolutely wonderful and a delight to drink. I thought the $25 bottle best, but will have to go through the literature we gathered to find out which one it was.
We ate dinner at the hotel and didn't have any wine with our meal since we were pretty much "wined out" at that point. My Beautiful Wife and I had to convince our Good Friends, who are a decade younger, to continue the evening with dessert at Finale in Boston. We've found that having four kids and only occasionally spending a night away from them (last time was 5 years ago) is a powerful inducement to do as much as you can when you get the opportunity. Our Good Friends were "good" at humoring us and joined us for some memorable desserts. I had a green-apple mousse with the suggested pairing of Selaks Premium Selection Ice Wine 2001. It took two good tastes and made them magical.
Now we're back home and at work. Middle Daughter's fever continued through the weekend with the addition of her entire body being covered in a rash. I had her at the doctor's first thing this morning and she has strep. Youngest Daughter needed one more day at home before being ready for school. The middle school office person said that 100 kids were out today! Son and Oldest Daughter made it to school but I feel like it is just a matter of time until they need to stay home too.
Posted by bbarton at February 3, 2003 09:14 PM