Drinking in the New.....

Our next wine tasting gathering will be in January.
We'll meet at Dave and Marci's
Thursday, January 11th at 7:30 p.m.

Please bring a bottle of wine.
We are focusing on the Australian wine regions, so use that to guide your selection. I'll mail out a reminder card as the date nears.



Click here for more information on Australian wines. Or here.
Or here. Heck, there are tons of sites online... Have fun!

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.

And so we shall meet.....

Our first wine-tasting, conversation-laden, snacking, musical event will be at my apartment.... I'll provide a musical selection and some appetizers... you bring a bottle of wine and some ideas for how we should proceed. Suggestions for a clever name for our group are also welcome. Look for an invite or e-mail with my address and directions.

Wondering about Wine

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 spent 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.