Wine Town in New York City?by Filippo BartolottaMake sense? Well it means that the "Wine Town" Tuscan event is taking place in Manhattan this Monday and Tuesday. I barely made it back home from St. Petersberg and here I am already in the big apple, where of course I find the snow.I left Russia with some nice memories of a hot soup and a really good St Petersberg Vodka.It would actually feel more appropriate to have some here in New York then in Russia.The one to the right is the really good one!Here are some pictures of the great design of the 20th C. vodkas.My road to my house the day before catching the plane to New York. The extra-virgin Olive Oil has started in the warmest October in decades!But my morning run this morning was glorious. This is dedicated to Serena Guidobaldi.My shopping for the week at the Amish Market. Now let's do some lunch!Returning home for a hot shower.Some China town shopping a simple dim-sum Sunday lunch. Then a little walk dinner.Then dinner at the bitter/acidc WD50. YEP! This is not a restaurant for sweet easy neutral palate. Every dish last for at least ten minutes and they are all made with love and care by Wylie Dufresne always in the kitchen and not busy doing tv shows![caption id="attachment_3189" align="alignleft" width="538" caption="Wylie Dufresne "][/caption]This is what the dinner tonight was like, plus some little treats on the way in and the way outSweet potato soup, scallop ravioli, kalamansi, hazlenut Smoked cuttlefish, parsley root, fuji apple, parsley oil Coho salmon, carrot, root beer, cherry Halibut, hen oeuro the woods, burnt lemon, soybean, mushroom jus Blood orange curd, thyme, swiss chard, hibiscus Soft meringue, passionfruit, banana, star anise Liquid churro, bitter cocoa, chilies, meyer lemon Any dish really here is something you will remember forever. The preparation, the almost absence of any cream or fat,the delicious mouthwatering combination of acidity, smokiness and bitterness is a very challenging and delicious exercise for your brain.A very good friend asked me what wine to go for. I decided for a 1974. It was one of the top thirty wines of my life so far: Heitz Cellar Martha's Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 1974, from Napa Valley. My choice was among some pretty delicious wines among which a 1961 Chateneuf du Pape. But I thought to myself 1974 Napa? It is either going to be good or really bad.It was the first one. This is a wine which during the famous 1976 wine tasting in Paris won against the french. 30 ears on, in 2006 and during another blind tasting the US wines won agin against the French. Steven Spurrier, the organizer, said that everyone was surprised about the results! Even more so after thirty years. Well I wasn't part of the tasting panel then, but I can tell you that this 1974 Napa Cabernet was just simply a delicious wine.The start was very new world Cab varietal with a lot of green peppers, black currants, cider wood and a very sweet palate. Immediately we were taken aback about the youth of the wine. Then, after thirty min. in the decanter the wine became more vertical, mineral and leathery. The menthol started to pop out together with a spicy oriental leaf complexity, sage and licorice. By the end of the evening the wine became more tobacco leaf like with a lot more minerality and a perfect tannic touch. More life ahead.