A few folks have kindly asked how it was for me during Gonzalo and I have replied that the temperature was a pleasant 75 degrees, the sky was blue and there was a gentle breeze wafting. You see, I was making my annual pilgrimage to the Marriott Marquis on Times Square and the New York Wine Experience.

Two hundred and sixty- seven wineries were pouring their best during two nights of Grand Tastings. The days were filled with seminars and tastings and luncheons were put on by Washington State and Italy. To say that I enjoyed well over three hundred wines would not be an exaggeration.

My long-time friend Pascal Jolivet, from the Loire Valley in France, was offering his Pouilly Fume to taste and again this year he expressed amazement at how popular his Sancerre is on our Island. We sell his Pouilly Fume and Sancerre, from the birthplace of Sauvignon Blanc, for $27.50 and Pascal’s gravity-fed winery and organic and bio-dynamic farming guarantees pure and pristine wines.

Doug Shafer was pouring the 2010 vintage of his Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon from the Stags Leap district of Napa Valley.

I honestly do not believe that there is a more consistently great wine anywhere in our world. We have the 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2008 in stock and we have just received the 2009.

Parker rates this 2009 98/100 and calls the finish “dazzling and utterly vivid”.

James Suckling gives it 97-98/100 and calls it “mind blowing stuff”. The Wine Enthusiast scores it 97/100 and writes “incredibly concentrated blackberry, dark chocolate and ripe cassis flavours, wrapped in impeccably rich tannins”.

The Wine Spectator awards it 96/100 and calls it a “monumental effort offering a striking crescendo of dense, rich flavours”.

Often, as this great wine ages it does reach a perfect 100/100. The 2009 sells for $273.45.

Laurent Drouhin shared his Chambolle Musigny Premier Cru with me (and 2,000 others) and what a thrill to taste Pinot Noir from vineyards that date back before Roman times and were so well cultivated by monks in the Middle Ages.

Laurent’s sister Veronique says of the 2008 that we presently stock, “Fine lace and silk are the words most often associated with this wine. Bright, intense colour and complex aromas evoking violet, black cherry and damp earth. Notes of truffle and game. Long finish with notes of cherry and candied fruit”.

I love the fact that the Drouhin family farm bio-dynamically and use horses rather than tractors on their land.

Drouhin 2008 Chambolle-Musigny sells for $75.70

Of course Bordeaux was well represented and my co-worker Kevin and my wife and I did not miss tasting the five Great First Growths; “Lafite Rothschild, Latour, Mouton Rothschild, Haut Brion and Margaux.

We presently have the 2001 Chateau Mouton Rothschild that the Wine Spectator felt was “very smoky, with berry, coffee and tobacco aromas, full bodied with polished tannins, plenty of fruit and a cedary aftertaste. Solid and very, very fine”. $1,088.00 a bottle.

Our 2004 Chateau Latour, according to Robert Parker “provides additional evidence of why Latour is pushing slightly ahead of most of its First-Growth rivals”.

He gives it 95-97/100 and writes “purple colour, sweet perfume of crushed rocks, black currants, raspberries, and hints of wood as well as cold steel, drink 2010 to 2030”. Also $1,088 a bottle, but remember 10% off on a case!

What a faux pas when I held out my right hand to shake that of Sarah Marquis, who with her husband Sparky own Mollydooker, the most awarded Australian winery. Of course she corrected me by offering her left, after all Mollydooker is Australian for “left handed”, which she and her husband both are.

Sarah was pouring their Mollydooker 2012 Carnival of Love that we have in stock. This 100% Shiraz received 95/100 from the Wine Spectator and you would be hard-pressed to find a finer Shiraz anywhere.

If you seek richness, muscle and poise then look no further. $89.95.

My heavens there is no room to offer comments on the other two hundred and sixty wineries present, but rest assured that I did my very best to enjoy them all.

It shows what dedication I have to my position at Burrows Lightbourn! I do sincerely wish for all of you that the pieces are being put back together and that we can soon forget two such violent storms (I was here for the first).

•This column is a paid for advertorial for Burrows Lightbourn Ltd. Michael Robinson is Director of Wine at Burrows Lightbourn Ltd. He can be contacted at mrobinson@bll.bm or 295-0176. Burrows Lightbourn have stores in Hamilton (Front Street East. 295-1554), Paget (Harbour Road, 236-0355) and St George’s (York Street, 297-0409). A selection of their wines, beers and spirits are available online at www.wineonline.bm.