The condo is now empty, the wine is all in storage, 99 percent of the 22,000 pounds of crap we own is on a truck, and the rest is in our car or our hotel room. Finger Lakes, here we come!
In the process of saying goodbye to Chicago, the most disappointing wine experience was surely a J. J. Prüm 1990 Riesling Auslese, "Wehlener Sonnenuhr." Recently acquired from a usually reliable source, but this bottle would be disappointingly OTH if it weren't also corked up the wazoo.
On the other hand, last night we enjoyed a Produttori 2001 Barbaresco; it had a Canadian importer strip and I'm not sure how it wound up on the off-list stash of a certain Chicago restaurant, but I'm glad it did, because it was really lovely; already expressive after a pretty short decant; truffle, fennel pollen, and tobacco are among the identifiable aromas, but mostly it's just a seamless glide from the lift-you-onto-your-tiptoes nose, through the bright palate presence, to the long, velvety finish -- backed with enough remaining tannin to remind you that it's by no means at the end of its life. Classic.