Wine, food and beautiful surroundings are the lures of the Taste Of The Beach Florida event. The four-day culinary and cultural celebration runs from November 5-8, 2009 on Northwest Florida's Gulf Coast and benefits children's charities. The festival is comprised of seven events ranging from wine tastings and film screenings to winemaker dinners and a charity auction all taking place in an area full of white sand beaches, boutiques and golf courses and other temptations. This stretch of Florida includes Escambia, Destin, Panama City Beach and many other towns an area that is often too warm in the summer months but very pleasant in the fall.

This year's events includes: Taste of The Harbor, Taste of Bay Wine & Food Experience, Al Fresco Reserve Tasting at Ruskin Place, Telluride MountainFilm on Tour, Seeing Red Wine Festival, a series of wine maker dinners at area restaurants, and the Taste of The Beach & Charity Auction. Various events range from $35 to $145. Tickets are available at the Taste of the Beach website.

Thomas Keller's Per Se restaurant in New York City is launching a new series of wine dinners called An American Table at Per Se. The series explores American winemaking through three different themes expressed with three different winemaker-hosted dinners one on May 28, the next on June 11 and the final one on June 22. Each dinner will consist of a standing reception followed by a seated dinner with a tasting menu paired with wine selections served in Per Se's private dining room. Chef de Cuisine Jonathan Benno will create each evening's special menu and Head Sommelier Roxane Shafee-Moghadam will join each winemaker to help with guest questions.

The series launches on May 28th with Wells Guthrie of Copain Wine Cellars who will discuss old world inspiration in American winemaking. He will share his own wines along with additional selections from some of his most beloved French winemakers and influencers including Jean-Louis Chave, Sylvain Cathiard and Thierry Allemand.

On June 11, Per Se hosts a discussion on the importance of the land with Greg Brewer of Brewer-Clifton, Melville Winery and Diatom Wines. The six-course tasting menu will be designed to bridge the regional reference points, from Japan to Chablis, reflected in Brewer's accompanying wine pairings.

The third dinner on June 22 looks at modern winemaking with Abe Schoener from Scholium Project. He will showcase a variety of wines from his portfolio including selections from his Southern France collection and a preview of wines from his latest project, Red Hook Winery, an urban winery in the Red Hook region of Brooklyn which produces wine from New York State grapes.

Each dinner costs $325 per person plus tax and reservations are limited.

One of the most anticipated yearly wine events in Los Angeles is the Bogart Pediatric Cancer Research Program Wine Aficionado Dinner. The event will take place at Disney Hall in Los Angeles on May 14. This year's program celebrates the 2005 vintage from Bordeaux to Napa with three flights, each comprised of two to three wines from different wine regions across the globe. Featured wines include the 98-point Robert Parker rated 2005 Clos Fourtet from St-Emilion in Bordeaux, the rare 2005 Rion Clos de Vougeot from Burgundy's Côte de Nuits, and the 97-point Robert Parker rated 2005 Colgin IX Estate Napa Valley Red Wine from California. The wine will be paired with a special four-course menu from Chef Joachim Splichal.The event includes a live auction including one-of-a kind lots such as a seat on the Robb Report "Car of the Year" panel; two exclusive "Best Cellars" lots featuring highly-rated 2005 vintage wines from around the globe; "Everything's Coming Up Rosens," a private movie screening in the home of Fred and Nadine Rosen; a progressive dinner for four couples in four of Los Angeles' top elite homes; and a sports package featuring a private tour of the Gary Cypres Sports Museum of Los Angeles.

The Bogart Pediatric Cancer Research Program conducts the leukemia and cancer research for infants, children, and adolescents at the Childrens Hospital Los Angeles. Tickets for the dinner are $1,250 per person or $10,000 per table of ten.

Who would have thought that the oldest Italian restaurant in the U.S. would be in San Francisco? Fior D'Italia first opened in 1886 and has a long history that even includes a year in a tent after the 1906 Great Fire. The restaurant holds a series of wine dinners the next of which is coming up on August 30 with Seghesio Family Vineyards. The evening includes a five-course Italian feast paired with Seghesio wines. Pete and Cathy Seghesio will be on hand to present the wines and the cost is $100 per person.

Wine lovers in Chicago will have the chance to drink well in September. Hart Davis Hart Wine Company is holding a series of wine events around their September 15th auction of fine wines. The auction will feature classic Bordeaux, rare Burgundy from producers such as Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, and Californian cult wines including 42 lots from Harlan Estate and 35 lots from Screaming Eagle. This one-day auction will consist of 1,258 lots and has pre-auction estimate of $2.5-3.7 million. Hart Davis Hart will host two wine dinners: the Staglin Family Vineyards wine dinner on September 14 at Tru Restaurant will cost $750 per person and will include the chance to dine with the Staglins and sample Staglin's Napa Valley wines as well as First-Growth Bordeaux, Château Mouton Rothschild, and Corton-Charlemagne from Morey-Blanc.

On September 15th, the Legends of Napa Valley Dinner: Marcassin, Screaming Eagle, Harlan, Diamond Creek Lake Vineyard will be held at the Blackbird Restaurant. It will cost an astounding $1,700 per person and feature wines from some of the most acclaimed properties in Napa Valley including Marcassin, Screaming Eagle, Harlan and Diamond Creek Lake Vineyard.

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.