By Ada Brunstein

There’s something about a tavern on a Friday night – the low ceilings, exposed granite jutting out of the walls, candles burning in ornamental mesh balls dangling throughout the space. That was the look of the den-like Cava room in the lower level of the Ivy Restaurant in downtown Boston tonight. It’s not easy to preserve a sense of intimacy among 95 people, but there’s something about a tavern that makes it possible.

On this particular Friday night, 6 days before Thanksgiving, we celebrated a book about wine. Alyssa Rapp, founder and CEO of Bottlenotes, Inc., wanted to create an online community of wine enthusiasts – a place where novices could learn about wine and connoisseurs could expand their knowledge. In the last three years, Bottlenotes.com became that community.

Chelsea King, an acquisitions editor at Adams Media, came across the site and was struck by the fresh perspective. “It brightened the world of wine, which can be a little stodgy sometimes,” she said. King soon commissioned a book from Rapp and the result was Bottlenotes Guide to Wine: Around the World in 80 Sips.

Rapp’s own journey started with a trip to the Stellenbosch wine region in the Western Cape of South Africa while she was a student of art history and politics at Yale. At the time wine was a hobby, but in the coming years she traveled the world – Italy, France, Austria, New Zealand, Australia, among others – and visited wine regions in each country.

“In each region,” she said, “wine, like art, served as a window into the people, their culture and the political history of the region.” In her book she adds, “wine served as a socially organizing principle of meals and lifestyle in a way I had not previously experienced in the United States.”

If the wine event in the Cava room Friday night served as a window into our local culture, here’s what an observer might say:

Bostonians are unpretentious. They loved the $15 Caposaldo Prosecco NV, described as “sophisticated but not snobbish, stylish but not stuffy.” Rapp called Prosecco “a wonderful way to awaken your palette at the beginning of an evening.” I would add that its sparkle not only awakens the palette but makes it party-ready.

Bostonians are opinionated. They went back and forth on the differences between the Louis Jadot Château des Jacques Beaujolais Blanc 2004 ($15) and the St. Francis Sonoma County Chardonnay 2006 ($17). The Beaujolais was light and flavorful, the Chardonnay full-bodied, and the conversation lively.

Bostonians are adventurous. The Craggy Range Te Kahu Merlot 2005 from New Zealand ($30) was outstanding. It made me question whether I’d ever really tasted Merlot before, but then I’d never had one from New Zealand.

Bostonians know a good value when they see it. The St. Francis RED 2005 ($13) made from 4 different grapes was nominated by those at my table as the best value of the night.

The next three wines might reveal Bostonians’ passions, our grit, and our resilience. These were the wines Rapp called the “show stoppers.” First, the Agricola Punica Barrua 2003 ($50), a rich wine made from the Carignano grape. Then a Tempranillo, Bodega Roda Reserva 2003 ($45). Tempranillos, according to Rapp, are usually “tongue-stripping and teeth-blackening” but this one was truly elegant yet can stand up to anything, even the blue cheese with which I tasted it. Finally the Sequoia Grove Cabernet Sauvignon Rutherford Bench Reserve 2004 ($55), a big flavorful wine that went beautifully with the pork sampling provided by Ivy.

Rapp and her publishers generously offered a free copy of the book to all attendees and once I started reading, I found it hard to stop. The book is peppered with fascinating details about the history of wine, as well as with practical information such as how to decipher wine labels from different regions.

It also helps the reader identify her personal wine taste (which the Bottlenotes website also offers as the Personal Taste Profile). How do you take your coffee? Do you spice your food with salt and pepper? These are the kinds of questions that can help wine enthusiasts understand their own palettes and personalize their wine choices, and in that sense wine might also serve as a window onto ourselves.