At Three Monkeys in Sacramento. Mediocre, overpriced restaurant. I didn't expect much when I heard they had a Cali menu, a big bar, and a sushi bar. My friend described it as an "upscale TGI Fridays." Not exactly packed, either-Sacramento has far better dining options. Still-service was good, and they didn't blink when we brought in all our wine
(There were 11 of us, and we also ordered cocktails)
Still=Wines were to be drunk, so...
1997 Beringer Quartz Vineyard. Needed to be opened and decanted first. Quite a bit of smooth oak backing up the fruit when first opened. Not vanilla, per se, just smooothnessssss! However, by the end of the evening, the oak dropped out and this wine was singing. Hard to rate, given the error in not decanting at the beginning of the night (or even a couple hours earlier.
2004 Nemerever Oakville Cabernet. Pretty much a standard Napa Cabernet. Nothing wrong with it-black cherry, cassis, a touch of oak, but not too much. Pretty young, so some tannins. A 'vanity project" wine-rich financiers buy an acre in Oakville (near Screagle), harvest enough grapes to have a custom crush facility (Judd's Hill) make a few bottles of wine. Not bad, certainly drinkable, but nothing too exciting, either. 14/20
2005 Elizabeth Spencer Petit Sirah (Suisun Valley). A very smooth and drinkable young Pet, with plenty of red fruit and some savorynes. Very nice. 16.5/20
2005 Merry Edwards Sauvignon Blanc. More of a "French" style, with plenty of oak. Grassy on the nose. Piercing citrus notes with some grassyness. Also, some savory notes. The oak made this very rich and smooth- a relatively uncommon experience for me, as I am so used to the piercing gosseberry of New Zealand wines or the acerbic austerity of Sancerre! However, I kept coming back to this beauty over the evening. Not a universal favorite, though.
Too expansive, though
As much as I enjoyed it (almost my wine of the night), I kept thinking about the cheap $15 Pessac-Leognan Bordeaux Blanc I had at Wine Styles last week. Gave me almost the same pleasure for the same "type" of wine at less than 1/2 the cost. (the French wine did not have the really cool Art Nouveau label art, though 
) 17/20
Saturday Night: Potluck and Wine Party. Semi-German Theme. Highlights and Lowlights for me were:
Glatzer St. Laurent Altenberg 2004. New grape, new country for me! I really liked the nose of this wine: very rich and dark cherry and cinnamon and pepper notes. One of those wines you coulod just sniff for quite a while before drinking any! Light red color, which made snse, as on the palate this reminded me a lot of a Pinot Noir-but not quite. Certainly the black cherry, but a lot of black pepper. The cinammon was not as dominant on the palate. Relatively modest alcohol-about 13%
http://www.weingutglatzer.at/en/wines.htm
From the website: "Fruity and elegant with spicy sour cherry flavors"
Almost everyone really liked this wine-it was a big hit. It was just plain enjoyable to drink, and I am not normally a big Pinot drinker! (Not that it was completely like a pinot, that's the closest I can come to my past experience). Not cheap ($30) but in a world of $60 California Pinots, not outrageous, either. Will buy this one again! 17.5/20. Maybe even 18 for the nose alone!
The other star of the night was 2001 Weingut Kassner-Simon Pfalz Scheurebe Spatlese (from Freinsheim) http://www.kassner-simon.de/
My Riesling Palate and experience is very limited, but I loved this one! Maybe it's the age of the wine (2001). This was just a lovely combination of smooth peach and honey. Maybe some of the petrol notes as well? Delicious. 17.5/20
The other top notch Riesling was an unreleased wine from Tenbrink Family Vineyards in an unlabeled Riesling bottle. Northern Californians who travel on I-80 in Solano County-look for a red barn by the freeway just west of Fairfield proper. The Suisun Valley will hopefully be coming of age! Delicious in pure citrus, lemon, and peach flavors. Very clean and good acidity. I think's a 2006? 16/20
2001 Hess Mount Veeder Cabernet Sauvignon. This is in a very nice place right now. A lot of oak, but there is delicious black currant fruit with good acidity. More importantly, the wine is showing some very nice leather and tobacco savory notes as well. Delicious! 17/20
2002 Benziger Tribute. didn't enjoy this as much as I thought I would. Good solid black fruit with well-resolved tannins. Not a lot of savory or leather notes, and I didn't care for the bitter note on the finish. Sometimes said bitter note works for me, here it was a distraction. 14/20
2001 Volker Eissler Terzetto (Bordeaux Blend) Educational for me. When I was opening the wine before the party, I thought the nose was unsually muted. Palate was also. A friend with some wine experience said "corked" I sniffed again. Wet cardboard. Bleh. It wasn't "foul" in any way, just muted.
10/20 (Flaw)
2001 Petaluma Adelaide Hills Shiraz. This was a very controversial wine. When I first opened it, there were some nice bacon and meaty notes which I enjoy. The wine seemed to close down quite a bit, though. Some green tannins, perhaps? Somewhat bitter and short finish. At 13.7% abv, this is definitely no gobmonster! Not sure how to rank it, did I drink this too soon? Did it need more air? Anyone very familiar with Petaluma Shiraz?? 13/20
2004 Gundlach Bundschau Sonoma County Rheinfarm Merlot. This wine got widely divergent scores in the usual mags. A lot of my friends liked this, I found it rather harsh and thin, and it had a metallic notes that I didn't care for. What did I miss? 12/20 for me. Much higher for my boss and other people.