I had the pleasure to attend the Wine Spectator’s  Grand

Tour 2009 event which was held on May 9th at The Borgata

Casino and Hotel in Atlantic City.  It was a very well run

wine tasting event, the $200 per ticket price and limited

amount of tickets sold made the experience (not the price)

very enjoyable.  Most wine tasting events are over crowded

and each booth has a line so you do not get the time to speak

with the winery owner or representative or to get questions

answered.  The experience was enhanced by the bound book

which had each winery represented  and a picture of the wine

label they were pouring, a real wine glass (not the little ones

you get a most wine events) and each winery poured at least

a 3 ounce pour not a little sip once again like most events. That

fact has a good result and a bad one..since I am do not  spit

(unless the wine is terrible),  I was finishing most pours which

leads to your note taking to stop after the first hour of the event.

The event also offered a buffet of food.  The best thing about this

event is the opportunity to taste a good  deal of Wine Spectator’s

prior year’s Top 100 Wines, most you can’t afford or can’t find.

I estimated that the average bottle of wine which was poured that

night averaged $80-100 retail, some of the French wines would

sell for $450 a bottle if you could find them in a store. The event

is also held in Vas Vegas and Chicago in May each year.  The event

was three hours long, one more hour would have allowed one to

map out the booths (favorites) that your wanted to visit without

rushing since there were 212 wineries represented. 

See more results from this categorySelected results from Videos

Video : Video Index
Wine Spectator Grand Tour: Atlantic City 2009