Our two-week summer adventure through Russia and Italy’s sublime Tuscany was a dining odyssey marked by several memorable menus and wine lists, some described in earlier Vintelligence posts. By the time it was over in mid-August, the beginning of the trip — a brief stay in London — was more or less overshadowed.

Unless you are a business traveler with a benevolent accounting department, London is not an obvious choice these days. It is easily one of the world’s most expensive cities, a reality only magnified for American visitors because the British pound-U.S. dollar exchange rate is about 2-to-1. But London is a great city (the Olympic Games host in 2012), nonetheless, and a perfect starting point on the way to the European continent and beyond.

A couple of highlights from the notebook:

As I write this, I’m seeing on CNBC that the U.S. dollar has reached a record low against the Euro. The wine trade is, of course, watching this development with angst, as it affects every part of our business.  Generally speaking, the net effect of our weak dollar is that wines from Europe are much more expensive for Americans to buy.  This should push more and more collectors purchasing fine wine to look at domestic wines and European choices from back vintages already stateside and purchased when the dollar was stronger.  As with all things economic, there is no simple answer, however, so even wines sold on our shores at auction are attracting increased interest from abroad. 

With fall in the air in the Chicago area, we relaxed outdoors last night at the North Shore home of close friends. The gathering called for sensational wine. We opened the newly released 2004 Pedestal Merlot from Washington’s overachieving Columbia Valley. This is just the second vintage for Pedestal, one of the prestige labels under the Long Shadows winemaking project in Washington. (Long Shadows recently was named Winery of the Year by Food & Wine magazine). But Pedestal already has attracted an avid legion of fans who love its Bordeaux qualities.

Pomerol-based winemaker Michel Rolland (right) crafts Pedestal from Columbia Valley fruit. It took vineyards of extreme promise and, ultimately, quality to pull him away from his native France and numerous consulting duties. Rolland is the winemaking consultant as well to Staglin Family’s world-class wines produced in Napa Valley.