Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Wine Tasting Party (billy)

This past Friday we hosted a wine tasting party for friends and colleagues. That the party happened to coincide with my birthday was the impetus but not the focus. The wines from around the world were the focus.

What made this tasting successful was that it was guided. By this I mean that there was a very gracious gentleman (a colleague of mine) who used to teach WINE at the local U, has helped found wine companies, and has generally been everywhere of major significance. This guy gave me a fantastic gift when he agreed to lead the wine flights.

He taught the novices how to swirl, sniff and taste. He described the geography most prevalent with the wines and or varietals we were tasting. He brought with him a 1974 Petite Syrah to taste (review later).

In all, it was his knowledge, patient attitude with the guests who ranged in wine knowlege from "wine is red and white" to folks who knew something of the different regions, and willingness to talk us through the flights that really made the party. DJ, thank you so very much.

We also found the PDF printouts from WineCountryGetaways to be quite useful.

Everyone brought a wine or two to try (and some wonderful cheeses as well) and we tasted and sipped 10 bottles or so (with some other wines and sparklers out just for drinking).

The reviews of these wines will appear above over the course of the next several days as time permits (I have a little one recovering from surgery right now).

Finally, I want to say a very special thank you to the fetching Mrs. (billy) for giving me such a fantastic evening.

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