Hope all of the questions have been answered and now it's your turn to tell me what your theory on La Brigada is and whether it's been/somewhat/if at all supported and once again. Once again, all three of us LOVED the place and it was totally worth the 14+ hours of travel time :-).
That is good to hear. It is very convenient for me, and the last visit was so off-putting that I never cared to return (after a couple years of declining returns). At its peak, I've had some excellent meat there, as well as decent service.
As far as the price of wine, markups are generally substantially less than in the USA and many other countries. While I can't speak for your palate, I've had very decent wines in restaurants in the $200s recently. (I'm not talking high end reds.) I don't know what cost you $800, but if it was a higher end tinto, and it was delicious, and it was part of a great meal, it was worth every centavo. Really, no one should make you feel ripped off if you had a fantastic experience and drank an excellent wine for what, US$50-ish a bottle?
As far as theories, I don't really have one. It has been clear for a while that Hugo's ego barely fits on the narrow Estados Unidos.
I doubt most of us here are trying to point anyone in the wrong direction. We're just speaking from our own palates and wallets!