So-So Wines, Great People

If there's one thing that I appreciate about being a wine lover, it's the people I've met.

I am blessed to be invited to many wine dinners (perhaps too many if one looks at my expanding waistline), most of which feature some of the most transcendental and beautiful wines ever made (read: Burgundy & Champagne). These rare and magical bottles are brought by fellow wine-geeks, to share amongst friends and family. But good wines do not a good dinner make: it's the people that count the most. Just because there are extraordinary treasures on the table doesn't mean the event will be successful. I can recall several dinners where the wines were amazing, yet I was so bored I could have shot myself right then and there. And of course there's the exact opposite: so-so wines, with great people.

The other night I joined an eclectic crew at a local BYO place downtown. We enjoyed ourselves perhaps despite the wines, which shall remain nameless to protect the innocent. The food was good, the service excellent, and the wines... well, the less said about them, the better, as I mentioned earlier. But, and this is important, we had so much fun we laughed for hours. Perhaps it was actually because of the wines?

In any case, I think this is the most important thing to remember: the people I've met are what make this hobby of ours so much fun. They have, in general, been exceptionally generous, both with their wines as well as their friendship. And to me, this, aside from the wines they might bring to a dinner, is what counts the most.
Cheers!