Wining by proxy...First Acolyte JD tastes Vibrant Rioja...

Once again, the Goddess of Wine had to stay the course at the earth job, so JD manfully took up the mantle of wine-taster-maven at the Vibrant Rioja Trade Tasting on May 7th at Fleming’s Beverly Hills. Ah...the sacrifices we make in order to bring wine education to the masses!

Some background: Vibrant Rioja is a partnership between the DOCa Rioja and Wines From Spain. As the USA marketing and public relations campaign representing all DOCa Rioja wineries available in the U.S., Vibrant Rioja focuses on trade relations and trade education as well as consumer awareness - while distinguishing the DOCa Rioja as a producer of consistently superior wines through unparalleled quality control, tremendous value, style diversity and food-friendliness.

JD's words and highlights:
Easy to find. Easy parking. Simple check-in. There were several wine stations in the front room with the rest in the back room reached through an aisle lined on one side with booths. Sampled a number of wines; not all of course. There were, as is usually the case, too many and there was difficult access to some locations once the place got busy.

For a while I was noticing certain sea-like notes in some of the wines, especially in the front room. Then I discovered that the restaurant was preparing fish dishes to accompany the tasting. Oops.

There was some food, but scurrying among the wines by the time I thought to check on it, it was gone.