[ECAR 2007 Summer Symposium] Evening at NCAR

We spent last evening at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, which is located in an I.M. Pei building up above Boulder. We got to hear a terrific talk on the science behind proving and predicting global warming by Susan Solomon. Solomon was one of the first scientists to propose chlorofluorocarbons as the cause of the antarctic ozone hole, and is now the co-chair of Working Group 1 of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

After Susan's talk we had a wine-tasting conducted by master sommelier Bobby Stuckey, owner of Frasca restaurant in Boulder. Bobby talked and demonstrated the impact of global warming on wine by having us taste two Italian whites and two Italian reds, one each from a "classic" year and from a warmer than normal vintage. The point is that the heat makes a real difference in the quality of wine, and many of the recent years have been increasingly warm.

For the record, the wines we sampled were:

Keber Pinot Gris DOC Collio 2004 (a classic vintage) vs. the Gini DOC Soave Classico Superiore 2005 (warm vintage); and Le Macioche Rosso di Montalcino 2004 (a fabulous classic vintage that I drank a little too much of) vs. La Spinetta Sezzana 2003.

During the meal we were entertained by Deco Django, which as you might imagine, is a gypsy jazz group from Boulder. They were nice enough to invite me to sit in on bass for a couple of numbers, which was great fun (thanks, fellas!).

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