This week’s wine of the week is this delicious riesling vendanges tardives from Pierre Frick in Alsace. I thought this riesling was gorgeous filled with minerality, floral notes and flinty undertones. It was elegant and polished and the perfect end to a lovely dinner to celebrate this year’s group of graduates from the WSET Diploma program at the International Wine Center. On the first Monday in December for the last four years I have attended this dinner. It signifies the beginning of the holiday season in my mind and is a lovely way to see friends, old and new from the wine world. I got my diploma in 2008 and I was about as proud of that achievement as I was of getting my Master’s degree.

As part of the dinner, generously held each year at I Trulli, diploma graduates from past years bring wines to taste. We all try to sample as many as possible but it just isn’t possible when you see the amount of wine on offer.

I was thrilled to see May from In the Grape and taste an Armagnac that she brought with her. May is the Armagnac ambassador for this region and is my go to person for information about this spirit and many other wines. Seated at my table was also the lovely Stephanie Mcdade from the International Wine Center. Other wine friends and partners in crime, Eileen Lemonda, Rodolphe Boulanger of Lot18 , Sasha Smith of Spin the Bottle, Tracy Ellen Kamens of Grand Cru Classes, Mary Gorman, Eileen Duffy, and Lisa Granik who provided my table with an amazing wine from Georgia, a 2007 Mukuzani made from the Saperavi grape, located in the northeastern corner of Georgia in the Kakheti region. Thanks to this wine, I found a great blog this morning called Exalted Rations. There were many men at the dinner but for once it seemed that women were the dominant force in the wine industry.

I’m sure I left someone out but it was such a lovely evening and a long one that I hope I will be forgiven. Additionally, I live in NYC where the movie industry reigns and they are shooting a new movie on my floor. The fourth in six years….I’d rather the incentives given to the movie industry go to hire 5000 new teachers as discussed in this article but alas I didn’t go into politics.