Would anyone like to venture a guess to what this title refers? Try 600 wines, 6 people, and 2 hours.

I was fortunate enough to attend the “Philadelphia Wine Festival”, sponsored by Philadelphia Magazine and the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB) on (date) along with WineLog’s illustrious owners, Bill, Kim and Jason, my wife Kim and Bill’s better half Vena.

This was an opportunity to try wines from all over the world, in addition to wines I had heard about and never tried. It was also an excellent chance to explore and expand my wine horizons with different varietals, regions, and producers. There was also opportunity to speak with some of the winemakers, Brand managers, and distributors’ representatives. With row upon row of tables the first task at hand was to plot out an approximate tasting order. I chose to begin with white, then red and finally the dessert wines. From a formal wine tasting perspective this is typical, but the downside is having to revisit tables for their other selections. A lot of extra work but, hey I like to make things complicated.

Okay, enough with the jabbering, my tasting notes are informal, here are the highlights:

Wines to try before I get old.

Are you tired of seeing certain wines reviewed or being auctioned for exorbitant prices? Do you often wonder, “what’s the big fuss”? Would you like an opportunity to voice your opinion? If so, what would be the wines you choose? I made a list of my current picks of the moment, a winemakers dozen, if you will. These wines are Old World biased, but when you grow grapes in the same place for thousands of years it’s going to help the quality a bit.

1. Le Montrachet: The Chardonnay, a 20 acre vineyard with approx.18 growers and 26 producers, straddling the villages of Puligny and Chassagne in the Cote de Beaune of Burgundy. The vineyard practices and winemaking of the best producers are meticulous to a fault. The wines from the Le Montrachet vineyard are some of the most age worthy whites produced, 10 years being the absolute minimum, unfortunately most is drunk much too soon. Patience has its rewards, but with the 2005’s priced over $500, I’ll drink any vintage offered.

2. Domaine Romanee Conti: (DRC) Legendary Burgundy producer of some of the finest and some would rightfully argue, the finest Pinot Noir grown on the planet. While there are six different wines: Romanee-Conti, La Tache, Richebourg, Romanee-St-Vivant, Grand Echezeaux, and Echezeaux. The only one available to mere mortal’s price wise is Echezeaux. (’87 $700, ‘02 $900) To heck with the children’s tuition fund.

10 more great wines after the break…