Never Drank Like This At University

Got together for dinner with three of the boys from university days on Friday night. They've been meeting like this at least a couple times a year for all the years since, but I graduated to be an addition to the gang as of last year.

It's a great excuse to do some catching up, to eat well and to have a couple drinks to help lubricate the memory. I can confirm that there was some decent lubrication this night as we had no problem keeping the stories going all night - although it didn't hurt to have a cougar in action, a trophy date parading the little black dress (emphasis on "little") with the new jewels (we're not sure if the boobies were new or not) and some City action continually walking by. It's the first time we've gotten together since I started this blog and The List, so we took advantage of that and probably upgraded our wines accordingly.

We decided to meet at The Italian Kitchen and I think I can speak for all of us when I say that we had a great time. The Pink One was organizing the night and he scored us a smoking table. The food was everything I'd hoped for. The wine was great and our server, Masha, was superb. We were missing one tonight (as we were to be five) and the chair sat there empty the whole night - despite the boys' attempt to get Masha to join us for one of the wines she was suggesting.

Speaking of the wines...

76. 2005 Beringer Third Century Cabernet Sauvignon (North Coast - California)

77. 2006 Argiano Non Confurditor Rosso Toscano (IGT Tuscany - Italy)

78. 2006 Antinori Tenuta Guado al Tasso Il Brucato (DOC Bolgheri - Italy)

I arrived a tad late due to the fact that I'd forgotten my wallet at work and then decided to take the Skytrain downtown to the restaurant. It just allowed Mr. Big (no relation to Sex & The City - he's the one of us that still works the downtown firm lifestyle) time to peruse the wine list and decide on the Beringer.

It didn't take us long to polish off that bottle, so it couldn't have been that bad. But, it was time to move on to the Italian wines - given that we were at The Italian Kitchen. We'd chosen one that was sold out, so Masha recommended the Argiano and it was a big hit - a definite Tuscan that was just super. The blend of 40% cab sauv and a balance evenly split between merlot, syrah and sangiovese tested our memory of the whole story behind the Super Tuscans.

Having told Masha how much we enjoy the wine, she realized that the evening needed at least one more bottle and recommended Il Brucatio - the little brother (second wine) of Guado al Tasso - one of the big name Super Tuscans. Produced in Bolgheri, the coastal area of Tuscany, this was a blend of 60% cab and 30% merlot, with syrah (primarily) and a couple other varietals making up the balance. Big.

I think the Argiano was the favourite pretty much across the board - although The Pink One might have preferred the Brucatio - but he's a vegetarian (that eats fish). So, can we really trust his taste?

We didn't quite pull off having Masha model the wines for us, but she did take the link for the blog. That actually prompted one of the better laughs of the night. One of the gang commented on the state of everyone's studliness when it was the gay guy handing out his card and personal info to the hot server. Wisely, the response was that, "yeah, but everyone's married. We shouldn't be handing out cards to girls young enough to be our daughters."

We may not have left the restaurant as hooched as we might have back in university days, but then again, I know we wouldn't have eaten like that or tried such wines. In those times, it was beer. The closest we would have come to a Super Tuscan would have been a straw-covered bottle of chianti if we were really being adventurous.