Three Days, The Best Wines, $17,500

Alder over at Vinography has a post that got me thinking, does excess ever go to far? Alder tells of a three-day wine dinner that will be held in October by Acker, Merrall & Condit. The three nights take place at three of Manhattan's most expensive restaurants, Per Se, Daniel and Cru. And the list of wines is absolutely amazing. Just about everything that has ever been on an oenophile's wish list is represented. From Penfolds Grange to Mouton Rothschild to 1945 Graham's Port out of a magnum and a 1959 Chateau d'Yquem Sauternes, it's all there.

The experience costs $17,500 which actually seems like a relatively fair deal considering the prices some of these wines fetch. But the question Alder ponders, and which I am now wondering about is whether or not this is the experience of a lifetime or perhaps a waste of time, money and fabulous wine. With 30 wines per night, it's not like you would get a chance to savor or even appreciate the wine in your glass before another great pour came zipping through.  After three days and all that wine you would not be left with the distinctive taste-memory of this rare Burgundy or that delicious Barolo, instead there would be just a pleasant gustatory blur. Of course, if you have the cash, what a way to spend three days, as long as you can also  afford a spartan spa getaway to recuperate.