What this is all about...

It all started with a "little" book called 1001 Wines You Must Taste Before You Die. I asked a few girlfriends if they would be interested in working through the book with me. I mean, 1001 wines, by myself? Thought that would seem a little selfish. Fortunately, I have some of the greatest friends in the world and they have willingly agreed to take the plunge with me. We have gone a little "off book" but I haven't heard a complaint yet.

As we continue with these tastings, I hope to share not only the wines and what we thought of them, but also the food we paired with the wine and recipes as needed. Food can make or break a wine and our tastings have borne that out. I want to share that information and help break the "mystique" of wine.

We are expanding our wine knowledge and narrowing our choices at the same time. The real time goal is for all of us to find a few varietals (that is what the different grapes are called) that we like and then find the lowest, consistently good price point for those varietals. You do NOT have to spend a lot of money to drink really good wine!!!

13 tastings down, 100s still to go. So grab a glass, pop a cork, and join us!

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Blast From the Past - December 2013

December is always interesting at wine club.
Instead of the traditional gift exchange, this year we brought a wine or wine product from our past (read "pre-kids").  Everything was in a plain, brown bag.  No one was supposed to talk about what they were doing before the exchange.

Gifts were chosen in order of birthday.
Once a gift was open, the person who brought it had to explain the "past" association.

We learned a lot about each other this night.

We tasted EVERYTHING!

We also learned why this stuff is in our past.

More importantly, we learned that Paul Mason still sells wine in the carafe and you can pick it up at Safeway (top shelf, cheap wine aisle) for about $4!  That is worth it just for the carafe!  Pour the crappy chablis down the drain and enjoy your new carafe (they aren't that cheap anywhere else!)

What did we drink?

While I have no photographic evidence, the following was gifted:

Bartles & James Original Wine Cooler

Bartles & James Wild Berry Wine Cooler

Sutter Home White Zinfandel

Paul Mason Chablis

Andre Pink Sparkling Wine

Manischewitz

Christian Brothers Brandy & Diet Coke


It all sucks in 2013.

It probably sucked in 1990 or 1985.  We just didn't know it.

Growing up has its privileges!

One of them is being comfortable paying a little more decent stuff to pour in your glass.

Merry Christmas & Happy Hanukkah!

Next year has already been planned and it will be a totally blind tasting followed by a blind gift exchange of the wines that were tasted :-)  Reds, Whites, Sparklings are all fair game and we are going to let someone else pick them and bag them!  It will be so much fun to see if we can figure out what they are!

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