Once per year I wax rhapsodic about what I feel is the single best publicly available one-day wine tasting event held on the West Coast, the Wine and Spirits Top 100 tasting. No other wine tasting offers quite the combination of diversity, quality of wines, great food, and stellar venue as does this annual event.

For years, the wine trade and media in New York have had to either make the trek or watch from a distance and salivate, but no longer. Wine and Spirits Magazine is bringing a version of the Top 100 tasting to New York City this coming week. It’s called the Top 100 Symposium, and it offers the same sort of format as its San Francisco parent — namely the opportunity to walk around and taste many of the wines included in the magazine’s Top 100 issue while hobnobbing with winemakers and winery owners, not to mention members of the trade, media, and wine loving public.

The members of the public who attend in San Francisco tend to arrive in pretty snazzy form to this event, so I can only imagine that the New York incarnation will also be an occasion for people to be well-dressed even as they are well-fed.

I can’t emphasize strongly enough how worth the $119 general admission tariff this event is in California, and can only urge my New York readers to go give it a try (and report back!). I expect it to be just as excellent an event.

The First New York Top 100 Symposium
Tuesday, January 14th, 6:30 PM
Union Park Events
5-7 East 17th Street
New York, NY 10003 (map)

Tickets for the symposium should be purchased online. $119 gets you in, and $169 gets you in an hour early to snag a taste of Penfolds Grange or Ridge Monte Bello before they invariably disappear down the throats of your fellow attendees.

While there will be nibbles to eat (usually quite tasty ones) I recommend going with something in your stomach, dark clothes to avoid pesky wine stains, a good night’s sleep, and minus any perfumes or colognes that will interfere with your and other’s enjoyment. And of course, if you want to really taste your way through the room and remember it the next day, I recommend spitting!