About a year ago I attended a wine dinner, hosted by Richard Dean, sommelier at the Campton Place Hotel in San Francisco. Richard runs several dinners every year co-hosted by a notable vineyard. Each dinner starts with a champagne and wine reception, followed by a multi-course meal, each introduced by a representative of the vineyard, explaining the wine offered with each course. When I attended, the co-host vineyard was Peay in Cloverdale, Calif., part of the Sonoma Coasts. Peay is a small vineyard, specializing in superb syrahs and pinot noirs. They also have some tasty chardonnays. The next dinner at the Campton is May 12th, featuring Arman Pahlavan, founder/proprietor, Starlite Vineyards Sonoma. Each wine pairing will accompany an exquisite dinner, ranging from prawns to lamb. If your next trip to San Francisco happens to be around one of Richard’s wine dinners, I highly recommend you spend an evening at the wine dinner. You may contact Richard at richard.dean@tajhotels.com Richard has a long history with us, having been involved with our annual business-class wine survey judging. We are currently finalizing the venue for this year’s blind judging of business-class wines. We are proud to be the only magazine to run such a competition in the United States. Other magazines simply “cut and paste” results from wine surveys in the the UK — we actually run our own to judge American palates. Wish us CHEERS! -Fran Gallagher, publisher and CEO