Question: How many Master Sommeliers participated in the national conference/AGM this past week at the Inn at Spanish Bay in Monterey? In what was truly an awesome event, big thanks need to go out to Jay Fletcher, the current American Chairman, Kathleen Lewis, our CEO, and Fred Dame, well, need one say more about Fred (!), for putting on such a great experience. Kudos!

Who woulda thunk it 23 plus years ago, that in 2010 there would be over 100 American Masters, plus one each in Canada and in Chile forming what is now known as the Court of Master Sommeliers- Americas, embracing our compadres to the north and to the south. As an early MS, we thought we’d be about 15-20 of us hanging out at the Veterans Home in Yountville, slogging down Cabernet Sauvignon, and telling war stories as it were at this point. Well, how time can prove one so wrong.

It was gratifying and invigorating to spend time with so many of the younger Masters, which is to say those who have passed in the past 5-7 years. They are pumped, full of fire and brimstone, motivated, passionate, and so altruistic about their accomplishment, ready to list who they are mentoring and how much they look forward to teaching and paying it forward. Remarkable.

The good: well, so much of it from dozens and dozens of bottles of spectacular wines on the BYO first night (geez, I wouldn’t know where to begin. I was heartened that the bottle I brought, a 2000 Spanish wine from the Ribera del Duero (Odysseus) was showing well in the company of myriad outstanding offerings), to a banquet with our friends from Wines of Australia who put on both an amazing Landmark Tutorial on Australian Shiraz (with single origin wines going back to 1990) and outdid themselves with an array of dinner wines including some stickies going back to 1908! Really. Finally, the closing event featured a number of outstanding bottles including aged Chevalier Montrachet and Batard Montrachet from Domaine LeFlaive, older vintages of Château Rayas, and a few bottles of outstanding Grand Cru red Burgundies. Yum.

The bad: Not much. No fighting, no embarrassing drunk fests and no, thank goodness, DUI’s as we kept ourselves on campus at the Inn for the whole time. No cars, no driving, no need to! Ugliest for me was the white knuckled drive from San Francisco to Monterey at the crack of dawn on Tuesday morning to make the Board of Directors meeting, with rain so fierce that I had to pull off the freeway twice. Hydroplaning would have been child’s play.

The ugly: If you had to be exposed to or cajoled into the closing night of karaoke you would have experienced the really ugly up close and personal. MS’s should stick to wine, not singing. No Masters will be giving up their day jobs any time soon, I can assure you, nor heading off to American Idol. Though there was a great “Pants on the Ground” effort put forth by our Texan contingent. Go Drew!!

Well, with these lovely memories fresh, I head off this week to New Zealand for speaking engagements at a Syrah workshop in Napier (Hawkes Bay) and the always-anticipated Pinot Noir Conference in Wellington. Reports to follow.

I am still smiling… can you believe how the Court has grown??