What a difference.  As I might have mentioned before, we started planning the 2009 event in August of 2008…but we got to work on the next one as soon as our heads cleared from the February festivities.  That’s given us several advantages.

We’ve been reaching out to a few very distinguished wineries, and asking them to commit to participating.  The response has been more than encouraging.  Gratifying, even.  I can say that the selection of wines at the Friday night dinners will be much more international in scope this year, with prestigious vintners represented from Italy and France as well as California, Oregon, and points west.  And I can further state without fear of contradiction that the selection of wines at the Grand Tasting will be up a couple of notches from the previous not-so-bad level.

The Very Helpful Kristen Palazzo

(We’re also going to do a better job on the logistics and setup, so I don’t melt down at the start of the Grand Tasting, like I did back in Feb.)

The other thing that puts us ahead is that we can secure the wines we want throughout the year.  Previously, we had to wait until about a month before the event.  But we’ve already started laying in a sensational selection, and storing it in controlled conditions.  It’s sort of a good news/bad news situation.  The current economy (bad news) has put many great wines on the market at drastically reduced prices, and many wines that were highly allocated or simply not available are now up for grabs (good news).  We’re taking advantage.

Lovely and Talented Lou Bernardi and Wife Denise

And I’m getting huge support from some very dedicated people.  Founding Trustee Marshall Hanno, who never met a wine he didn’t like, the knowledgeable Angela Robertson from Angelina’s Restaurant, Kristen Palazzo from Premier Beverage, Lou Bernardi from Southern Wine & Spirits, and several of our other Founding Trustees are working their networks to confirm wineries and find us all those great deals. 

It’s gonna be fun.