The genesis of this idea hatched nearly fully-formed as I stumbled around the aisles of Happy Harry’s bottleshop trying, in vain, to select a bottle of wine to bring to the holiday party scheduled later that evening. What is the difference between a shiraz and a chardonnay, or a merlot and a cabernet or a pinot noir? White or red? Sweet or dry? I’m told these distinctions again and again and it’s like the concepts don’t stick. I am sure I prefer sweet to dry, but I recently drank a glass of chardonnay and it wasn’t “awful” so, really, what do I like? I have friends who drink wine, who buy wine, who buy wine I like… so why is it so difficult for me. Do they know more, or are they good guessers? Do they have a single kind of wine they buy again and again?All these thoughts and more ran through my mind and finally it hit me that the only way to find out these answers is to DRINK some wine. And my idea for creating a wine tasting group took off. What if a group of friends gathered once a month or even every other month at someone’s home and we each brought a different kind of wine? The host/hostess could provide the snack (cheese/crackers or other simple appetizer) and everyone could bring a bottle of something to share. The rest of the night could be sp
ent sampling, snacking, visiting and more. I could create notecards or some kind of handy way to record the types of wines we tasted and what we thought… we could go home with great ideas for new wines or at least a better idea of what we like. We could educate ourselves in a lighthearted way that was informative but not intense or time consuming.We could take it a step further or just leave it at that. One way of expanding on this idea would be to include music. I remember the fun times we had a few years ago at a reception at Marci’s when we found ourselves sitting around the stereo drinking our wine and listening to new music… Jack Johnson, Martin Sexton, Joni Mitchell… Ahhhh….. Perhaps we could incorporate some musical exploration into this as well.
