A fun night tasting great wines with good people. Here's what I learned:

• Abe Schoener can cook!
• Abe Schoener drinks his own wines
• Abe Schoener drinks a lot of other people's wines
• Alex Kongsgaard is just as cool as his dad and has a vision
• In addition to making wine, running the office, and doing all the cooking at Kongsgaard, Evan Fraizer makes a mean cider and dances a mean dance
• 2002 Michel Niellon Chassagne-Montrachet Clos de la Maltroie is an excellent drink
• I think I'm getting into Priorat
• Sometimes the Skeletons win and sometimes the Robots win.
• Tonight the Skeletons won.

I like Monday night because Jesse cooks dinner on Mondays. To be honest, J makes dinner every night, but it's particularly nice to come home to on Monday, so I think it rates special mention.  The evening started out with a blind tasting of Alianca Vino Verde (Fail for me. I thought it was Trebbiano or at the very least, Italian. Meh.) I've had this producer before and it's very lightly and naturally effervescent, with a hint of RS--if you are used to Gazela, which has an assertive spritz, this is a different style, more old-fashioned. The meal tonight was Zarzuela, with a generous side of grilled bread for each of us. Oh deliciousness, you are tomatoes, shellfish and breadcrumbs. What a bright, savory meal for a rainy evening. Just as with risotto, it seems like too much food for two people, but then thirty minutes later, we're sopping up the juices and wishing for more. I also blind tasted for tonight's wine pairing, 2008 Bodegas Palacio de Fefinanes Rias Baixas. This is a nicely balanced Albarino with lots of trademark peach, saline and lemon-lime citrus. It was a great match for the tomato in the Zarzuela and paired well with the cheese, Idiazabal.  We pulled out two books during dinner: The Wine and Food of Spain which is 20 years old but our in-house reference book for Spanish cuisine as well as the ubiqutous Stephen Jenkin's Cheese Primer.