It has taken a few weeks to get around to doing a recap of this, but back on January 29th, I went to the 15th annual Boston Wine Expo at the World Trade Center.  As usual, I tried some fantastic wines and in order to both share them with everyone and simply as a means of getting them somewhere that I can refer to, here are my favorites.  Fancy tasting notes are stolen from notes taken from the distributors/wineries serving. (like I am going to remember what everything tastes like after five hours of drinking wine nearly a month ago…) 

Mavrodaphne of Patras – A full bodied red dessert wine from Greece with a rich yet delicate taste and port-style aroma

Royal Oporto 10 Year Old Tawny Port – www.realcompanhiavelha.pt

Quinta D’Aguieira Touringa Nacional – A very nice wine from Portugal

Casa Garcia Vinho Verde – Another excellent wine from Portugal.  They were quite impressive, even without the high end ports

Earth, Zin & Fire Front Row Zinfandel, Jessie’s Gove Petite Sirah and Jessie’s Grove Westwind Old Vine Zinfandel – Three wines from Lodi, California that I really liked.  Web site at http://www.jgwinery.com/

Incognito Viognier and Earthquake Zin – Another Lodi wine, this one from Michael-David Vineyards (which produces the 7 Deadly Zins wine).  Viognier is becoming one of my favorite wines – you can usually get it for a steal on wine menus in restaurants too.  The Zin is everything a Cali zin should be… spicy, juicy, full bodied… good stuff.

Trimbach Pinot Gris 2002 Reserve – From Alsace France, this is a remarkably well-balanced wine.  Highly recommended.

Herdade Grande Red Wine blend – From the Alentejo region of Portugal (I told you – the Portuguese wines were fantastic) by Herdade Grande vineyards

Santa Vitoria Red Wine – Also from the Alentejo region of Portugal, this is a combination of trincaderia, Aragones, and Syrah. 

Nobilis Wines – Three wines from Vini Nobilis, all of which were quite good.

Maria Schneider Jazz (2004) – A medium-dry Riesling wine from Reichsrat von Buhl that was very enjoyable.

Balduin von Hövel (2004) – Another very good fruity Riesling from von Hövel winery in the Saar valley of Germany.

Jean-Baptiste Riesling Kabinett (2004) – One more Riesling, this one off-dry, and rated 87 points by Wine Enthusiast magazine.

(please note about the above wines: I actually like German wines and enjoy sweeter wines.  I also like very dry wines, but I am a fan of sweet, fruity and dessert wines.  I don’t think a wine should be written off just because it comes from a country or because it is sweet.  You don’t have to peel off layers of skin in your mouth with tannins in order for a wine to be good!)

Sa Prüm Essence Reisling and Blue Slate Reisling – I have nothing on these other than some scribbles that say it was good.  Must have been towards the end of the day…

Burmester 20 year tawny port – Yeah, 20 year tawny port. Saying this is good is like saying "Godiva chocolate is tasty."  LOL  Burmester also had a very tasty 2000 vintage port.

Ironstone Xpression and Obsession Symphony – Both from Ironstone Vineyards.  The Xpression is a red Cabernet Franc blend.  The Obsession is made from the Symphony grape, which is a cross between Muscat of Alexandria and Grenache Gris.

A few Spanish wines – I wish we had taken better/clearer notes on this.  One says Urbina Idras (Ahiego) and the other says Seleccia especial & crianza berengue.  I have no idea what this means.  Look for a Spanish wine under the name "Urbina" think.  LOL 

Which brings me to my last point… I’m sure that these companies make major investments in being at the Wine Expo.  I’ve done enough events to know that it isn’t cheap to do and would imagine that the Wine Expo is a lot expensive than sampling milk at a kid’s fest.  You would think that with that investment more companies would invest a little more in take-aways for people to remember what wines they liked.  I would rather have more of those and less of a big heavy program that you’re supposed to write in (there’s a joke, as you’re jostling around a glass of wine and a goodie bag among the throngs of people). 

Just little cards – half 3.5 x 2.5 (half of an index card) with the basic info of the wine on it… maybe what distributor so that the public could ask for it from their favorite wine retailer.  With the thousands of people who pour through there (pun intended), wouldn’t help to make a better return on investment for everyone involved?