On Sunday night, I will be attending the 64th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards Governors Ball dinner, to be held downtown at the Los Angeles Convention Center. It immediately follows the Primetime Emmy Awards telecast at the Nokia Theatre L.A. Live. Ordinarily I don't like to attend these award ceremonies, but for various romantic reasons I agreed to put on a tux and shlepp down Olympic Blvd. to the event. My date was involved in creating the décor theme -- A Romantic Rhapsody in Red -- which is of interest to me mostly because it leads to my interest in... get this: red wines. Yes, I am a huge fan of drinking great reds, and she has promised me that I will get my fill of a wonderful selection of them. It seems that Beaulieu Vineyards, which is celebrating its 112th year of fine winemaking, is supplying the wines for the dinner. She says they have been doing this for the past nine years, and for seven have been the official wine of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. And she promised me a special treat. (At the dinner, not after.)
I will be backstage at the Emmys when they bring out a 27 liter bottle of the winery's flagship George Latour Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, the largest bottle ever produced for the wine industry! It holds the equivalent of 36 regular bottles of wine, stands about 3.5 feet high, and weighs over 110 pounds when full. I will be observing the signing of this bottle with a gold marker by all of the nominees and presenters. A nice fellow named Jeffrey Stambor, who is the vineyard's director of winemaking, tells me that this huge bottle will then be exhibited in their Napa Valley Visitors Center and auctioned off, with proceeds going to the Academy's educational programs. My date, involved in the program, tells me that 6,300 bottles of BV wine will be served, and each dinner guest will then leave with a bottle of red. I inquired and found that they will be serving a 2008 BV George de Latour Private Reserve Cab and the 2010 BV Carneros Chardonnay. Knowing that my pal, Patina Catering's Joachim Splichal, is preparing the gourmet dinner, I suspect the foods will be perfectly matched for those fine wines. Oh well, it's a tough life... but a guy's gotta do what a guy's gotta do for love.
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