Inspired by Jim Denevan's Outstanding in the Field dinners - dinners staged at organic farms near Santa Cruz, California since 1999 - four young partners in Boulder have developed Meadowlark Farm Dinners. The Meadlowlark Crew drives to a nearby farm in their catering bus, Bella, and harvests what is best from the field that day. They then use those ingredients to prepare that evening's dinner. A table is set outside in the field and seats all 35 guests. My wife and I attended last Friday's dinner at Frog Belly Farms, just outside of Longmont, Colorado and enjoyed one of our favorite meals of the year thus far.

"Trink, was klar ist, lieb, was rar ist" ("Drink what's pure, love what's rare"). The words and the ornate illustrations of the Josephöfer label are probably a better indicator of what's inside the bottle than anything I can summarize here. This is one of my favorite Riesling sites on the Mosel, and given that the 2007 German vintage has turned out to be nothing short of addictive, I've been keeping my eyes open for this solely-owned vineyard of the Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt estate.

My fascination with the notion of terroir in Champagne began many years ago while working alongside one of America's great Champagne experts: Gary Westby. Gary is the Champagne buyer for a top Bay Area retailer and is an ardent supporter of small, grower-producer Champagnes. I can still recall many conversations with him about the individual and expressive (not to mention value) Champagnes from the grower-producers, or récoltant-manipulants, as they are also known. These récoltant-manipulants also provide an opportunity to discover the differences between the major regions of Champagne, differences that are often blurred by the big négociant houses which dominate Champagne production.

Map of Chianti Classico from Nicolas Belfrage's "Brunello to Zibibbo"

The tendency in Chianti Classico is to focus on its four main villages: Greve in the hills of northern Chianti Classico; Radda in the center; and Castellina and Gaiole in the south. Nicolas Belfrage, M.W., states in his masterful book, "Brunello to Zibibbo," "that the question of the importance of commune is not yet answered; but it would appear that commune is much less important than it is, say in the Haut-Médoc or Côte d'Or."

During a trip to Boston last week to lecture for an introductory course for the Court of Master Sommeliers I found myself enjoying several great wines in the company of my colleagues. The 1996 Domaine Leflaive Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet that we ordered with dinner may very well have been my wine moment of the year, but then Boston collector Brad Malt entered the room. A long time collector of Vega Sicilia's Unico, Mr. Malt organized a tasting with fellow collectors and friends at Boston's Troquet restaurant and opened nine vintages of this legendary Ribera del Duero. Luckily for us we were sitting nearby, and Mr. Malt was an extremely generous fellow.

One of the most anticipated wine shipments for my restaurant this year has been the 2007 Venica e Venica's from Collio in Friuli. Ever since last year's staff trip to Friuli, we've been anxiously awaiting the arrival of these nervy, precise, and aromatic white wines from this small family winery near the Slovenian border. They are here, and they were well worth the wait.

One of the best things about living in Boulder over the last year and a half has been seeing the launch of David Vogels' Sommelier Journal, a trade magazine for wine professionals. David has a long history as a journalist and publisher, but it was his personal interest in wine that gave him the idea for the magazine. David enrolled in the CIA's Certified Wine Professional course out of his passion for wine, and in the process realized the need for a trade journal specifically for sommeliers. In only a few months of publication, David has tackled everything from Bordeaux-buying strategies to comprehensive Barolo tastings, and I've found many of his articles helpful in my current position at Frasca Food and Wine. This afternoon, I was happy to accept an invitation to sit on a panel tasting two vintages of Austrian Grüner Veltliner for an upcoming issue. It was informative and inspiring, and without a doubt, my wine moment of the week.

Even after a great week of tasting including some impressive Dal Forno Romano Valpolicella and a Vilmart Cellier d'Or, I was awestruck at a Fourth of July gathering where I had the opportunity to taste a bottle of barleywine with its maker, über-brewer Brendan McGinn.

I had tasted so few vintages of this "prestige cuvée of prestige cuvées" that it seemed a little beyond my realm of experience to speak about Pol Roger's Sir Winston Churchill at this weekend's Telluride Wine Festival. Fortunately, the great man's wine did all the talking, as the 1998 vintage provided the grande finale of an impressive line-up of Grande Marques in an early morning Champagne tasting. The Winston Churchill stunned the audience with its class and complexity. Bubbles expert Tom Stevenson has called it "...one of the greatest prestige cuvées of modern times..." and the 1998 certainly lived up to that praise. Pol Roger refuses to reveal the composition of the wine, upholding a promise made to the Churchill family when the idea of a wine made in Churchill's honor was first proposed. Since the initial 1975 vintage, little information has emerged about its contents other than its enviable 100% Grand Cru village status.

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to meet my fellow SOMMS at the Napa Valley Wine Auction. I wanted to learn from them about the hottest new things in San Francisco, Miami, and South Carolina, and they wanted to know from me about the food and wine scene in Denver. I was a little embarrassed because although I've lived in Boulder for over a year, I had not been to most of the top wine and food spots on the Front Range. So, I decided to dedicate a day to discover some of the best in Denver with my wife Elizabeth. Here's some of what we found: