Oh what a night! Thank you WW!

[RAD]

I met with Foodie, his wife, and Scoop at Foodie's apartment here in NYC last night for a tasting of 2 wines that WW sent for us to try.

Wine #1: 1999 Univ of CA (Davis?) Barbera. A fruity, lush, and round wine, albeit one lacking barbera typicity. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Definitely a new-world style. This wine has been talked about on the board before. I found it to have a clear magenta color, medium body, with lots of fruit, and the slightest hint of malolactic (Foodie noticed this first; it would have probably escaped me had he not mentioned it).

Wine #2: 1993 Hedges Red Mountain Reserve. A blend of 68% cab, 32% merlot. Liquid velvet--what an impressive wine! Wonderful nose of blackberry and cedar that somehow managed to be both lush and elegant simultaneously. Incredible concentration and depth, and a long finish, all shrouded in a veil of elegance. Without question the best wine I've had this year (FWIW, this includes some classic favs like 94 Araujo and Insignia). I was not familiar with this label before; Foodie noted that this was his 3rd vintage, and he'd liked all three.

WW, many, many thanks. I believe Foodie, Scoop, and I have scraped together some change and are sending you 3 bottles of your favorite SW. [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/biggrin.gif[/img]

RAD

PS Foodie, thanks for the hospitality--