My 50th birthday dinner!

My wife and I purchased the Talley Vineyards auction lot at the Atlanta High Museum Wine Auction in 2023. We decided to visit Talley as a part of my 50th birthday celebration which consisted of three days on the Central Coast and then four days in LA. We kicked off the celebration with a bottle of Champagne at the hotel and then the six of us headed out to dinner at Ember in Arroyo Grande, CA.

Prior to the trip, I had purchased three birth year ('74) Napa Cabs at auction and had them shipped to Talley weeks ahead of time to avoid any bottle shock. Brian expertly opened the 50 year old wines prior to our arrival at the restaurant - three perfectly intact corks were waiting for us (well done Brian!).

When we arrived, Brian Talley (and his mother Rosemary) greeted our group and we started with a lovely sparkling wine. We ordered everything family style and consumed some wonderful library wines from Talley and enjoyed one of the '74s (The Mondavi was good, the Sterling and BV, unfortunately, were bad). I was hoping that at least one of the 74's would be good, and thankfully that was the case!

This really turned out to be a wonderful dinner with wonderful wines; Brian and Rosemary were excellent hosts! A perfect start to the trip!

We were even encouraged to take the unopened wines and a few opened bottles back to hotel to continue the celebration! :)

WOTN for me was the '16 Talley Vineyards Pinot Noir Rincon Vineyard.