NPR, Wine Tasteing, & Audiophiles

Livermore, Ca. used to have an annual Labor Day Wine Festival. (Maybe they still do). Admission was 25 bucks and your three day 'ticket' to enter the vineyards was a wine glass. They had a separate summer concert series where you could have dinner outdoors and listen to Boz Scaggs .. a nice mix of wine and audio.

Wente Vineyards still has summer concerts, some of them really big names. I've never been but it sounds like fun. But talk about good music... there's the bluegrass festival this weekend in San Francisco. And talk about big names! I'm going just to see Tony Rice (but I'll take the rest too!).

Classical1 and Budrew,

I live in San Ramon. I've seen all these concerts and known people that have gone, but I got down there. The bay area is great for music. San Jose jazz festival, etc.

I'm certainly no expert on wine, but still remember the Wente Cabernet> i think it was called Special Reserve at @ $20/bottle. One of the best I've ever had. They put on a great festival.. it opened fairly early each day and I learned it's important to pace yourself :)

I think it is very un-scientific and useless to conduct a single blind tasting, and draw conclusions from that. Old winemakers and oenophiles know that it is not a single tasting (blind or not) that determines a wine's standing in the quality ranks. It is only if a wine consistently performs well at shows and events over a period of time that one can draw conclusions. Tastings involve people - thus subjective and prone to influences. E.g.- What is the experience levels of the tasters, what food was served prior /after tasting, what temperature etc. You get the idea.

Just like in high-end audio I guess. The good brands will stand the test of time and word of mouth.

Now go have a glass and put on another CD. :-)