Well, we’re just about down to it.  Serious crunch time.  This is when events pile upon us, vivid dreams occur, we begin carrying on serious conversations with our own selves, and howling at the moon.  We develop mysterious twitches of the fingers and eyebrows.  There are fevered imaginings.  Midnight sheets are soaked with the peculiar perspiration of anxiety.

Behind the scenes...there are lots more boxes.

Less than two weeks to go.  Carolyn Rogers and I talk to each other nine times a day, even on weekends.  We send emails by the thousands, to liaisons for the host homes, to winemakers finalizing travel arrangements, to wine distributors making sure all the wines are accounted for and will get where they’re supposed to go.  To people who have reserved but not paid.  Sometimes we send emails to people we don’t even know, because we can’t help ourselves.

Bid on this! Six year vertical in a special Collector

My office is clogged with brown cardboard boxes full of wine bottles…and they’re heavy!  (The best wines often come in thicker bottles).  Some of the boxes will go to individual homes for the vintner dinners, and our stalwart volunteers from the Downtown Fort Myers Rotary Club are poised to deliver cases and cases of the stuff to host homes from North Fort Myers to Sanibel to Naples.  Many, many cases are destined to be poured during the Grand Tasting and Auction at Miromar Lakes.  Still others are tagged as auction lots, to be taken home by lucky winning bidders.  There are hundreds and hundreds of bottles, a wine lover’s dream (or nightmare, because they’re not mine and I can’t drink them), and each must be present and accounted for, and checked off against the Master List. 

Now, a confession:  As I began this task, I decided that, as much as possible, all the wines would come from their “home” regions of the world.  That is, the Sauvignon Blancs that we serve would come from their “native” region of the Loire Valley, or from New Zealand, which has created SBs of surpassing quality.  Same with the Pinot Noirs from Burgundy and Oregon, and Syrahs from the Rhone and from Australia.  However, there are some excellent wines that just don’t fit the mold.  Take Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon, for instance.  It’s from Chile, but it makes the Wine Spectator Top 10 list just about every year, and I couldn’t resist ordering some for you to try.

 About the varietals:  I also promised myself at the beginning (last August…seems like decades ago) that we would present a selection of wines to please every taste.  In a perfect world, maybe…but we’ve done our best.  For those who enjoy the more traditional white wines, there will be fine examples of Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, and other well-known varietals, but you’ll also be able to discover some tasty Pinot Grigios, and, if memory serves, perhaps even a Vernaccia di San Gimignano.

The major wine distributors who serve our area have made special efforts to provide us with wines that offer enjoyable discoveries.  Most, as promised, are well-known varietals, but you’ll be pleasantly surprised at many of the producers.  Trust me, the ones you want to try first are the ones you’ve never heard of.  That’s the whole point.  We’d love for you to come home from the Grand Tasting having discovered some new favorites.

Since last August, there have been dozens of meetings with homeowners, chefs, wine distributors, and the marvelous people at Miromar Lakes.  We’ve worked through countless proposals and plans, checked everything in punishing detail, gathered with our generous Founding Trustees for update meetings and to solicit their suggestions, made hundreds of lists, drunk unconscionable amounts of wine.  Now, the dozens and dozens of people who have worked on this most worthwhile project for the last seven months are just about ready for Showtime.  Please excuse them if they’re be a bit distracted over the next two weeks, but their anxiety disorders, mild psychotic episodes, and moderate hallucinations are mostly harmless.  It’s the price we pay to help seriously ill children, and it’s more than worth it.

See you there!