Wine: not pictured

The Lopez de Heredia wine dinner at The Tangled Vine was a fantastic time last night. I felt a tad (um, a lot) out of my element because I honestly still feel like I know nothing about wine, but I am learnin'. And hanging around people passionate and so knowledgeable about it is pretty great. I have seriously got to get to Europe as soon as I can. I realized I took no pictures of the actual wine last night - oops. Clearly my thoughts were still on the food, even though that was not the focus of the dinner.

The pairings were very nice, but I need to work on my wine tolerance, especially before heading to Europe. The particularly special glass of the night was a Tondonia Gran Reserva '91. It was "really beautiful" as someone at our table put it. My favorite dish was the first one - the crispy octopus with fingerling potato and mussels en escabesche. AND I finally found a blue cheese I not only didn't wrinkle my nose at, but actually ENJOYED. This is a big big revelation for me. :D

And we met Maria, the winemaker! (Pictured in the middle of the group next to Jimmy.) She was very charming and lively (she's got those like sparkly eyes going on for her). Jimmy felt she was way too much cooler than us for us to interact with her. This is probably true.

Tonight I'm off to another dining adventure in Queens for some authentic Thai (nope, not SriPraPhai). Back with that report soon!