Daze of Wine and Noses

In the days before our wine tasting party, I was worried that I'd not be well enough to host a gathering since I had such a doozy of a cold. Even the day before my sense of smell and taste was not 100%, but on Thursday I was better and things were looking up. I just had a remnant of a cough that liked to strike late in the evening. (That is still lingering.) At 7:30 p.m. my guests arrived and I stepped into the role of hostess to seven friends: Bridget, J.R., Pam, Dave, Marci, Anna and Matt.

For our first meeting our wine selections were "anything goes" and we ended up with two red wines and three bottles of whites. We weren't sure how to drink them.... sweet to dry or dry to sweet. We decided to go from dry to sweet but I am still not certain if that is "correct." It did seem to affect my palate and my "appreciation" though it's hard to tell since I really am not even sure WHAT it is that I like. This time I leaned toward the reds... is that because we started with those? I served meat, cheese, crackers, a warm artichoke dip and grapes. And I finally had an opportunity to use my "lucky charms."

Here are the wines:

Dave and Marci's:
Cabernet Sauvignon
Greg Norman 2003
North Coast California Estate

Pam's:

Shiraz and Cabernet blend

Yellowtail 2005

Australia

Carmyn's:

Pinot Grigio delle Venezie

Ecco Domani 2005

Italy

Bridget and J.R.'s:

Honey Apple wine

Maple River Winery

Casselton, ND

Matt and Anna's:

Moscato di Pantelleria

Tanit

Italy

Our music:
The Weepies

I decided to feature that musical group because they are one of MY newest acquisitions. The album I played is Say I Am You released in 2006. The Weepies are a duo: Steve Tannen and Deb Talan. Each of these singer/songwriters has recorded solo albums, but they began writing together the night they met. That was four years ago. If you'd like to listen to them, check out their website and you can hear the full songs played there.

We reviewed the possible names for our group (all provided by Pam) and we narrowed it to Kindred Spirits and Corks and Cleavage. Kindred Spirits was already taken for a web address so I called the site Corks and Cleavage! That name seems in line with the playful spirit of the group. For our next meeting we decided to limit our choices of wine to a specific wine region: Australia.