Wine appreciation...

Not that anyone is following or reading this, but it's all about me anyway, so I felt I would excuse myself from my long break from writing a post. Please be assured that my dedication to this project has in no way waned. I just started a new job, and that took up my focus for a few weeks. In the mean time, I applied for, and was accepted, to a Masters of Arts program for English. This means that two (or was it three) of my tasks are set up to be in motion... being well read and going back to school.

Also, in the meantime, I have taken on the first task of wine appreciation. This was easy, since all I had to do was invite people to my house to drink the wine I bought. I had a friend help me pick out seven bottles of wines, two white, one blush, and four red. Then I put together a list of what they were, along with the specific brands we would be sampling. I invited about 14 or 15 people, since it seems that at an average, half the people invited will show up. I asked the guests to bring cheese, chips, crackers, and sorbet. I served some apples and different water (sparkling, mineral, distilled) to cleanse the palet. The book suggested to have each guess bring a bottle of wine, but I am way too controlling for that. I wanted to know what would be served and make sure it would not be missed if a guest couldn't make it for some reason. 

The night of the party, my guests arrived near on time, which is unusual for a party. It included my best friend, her boyfriend, my best guy friend, his friend, another close girl friend with her friend, and an old friend I have not seen in some years. We opened a bottle of Burgandy to start the night and get everyone warmed up. I had the bottles wrapped in blue masking tape, the kind used for painting, with numbers 1-7 written on the bottles. Everyone had a note card to write what wine they thought they were drinking, as well as adjectives to describe the wine. 

The results were surprising. I was amazed at how well some of my friends knew their wine. I knew what the wines were, but still had great difficulty actually discerning the difference between the reds. Another of my friends, not a big drinker, did not make it past the third glass. In all, two of my guests got 5 out of 7 right (it seems the Pinot Noir and Caberne sent out conflicting vibes on which was which).

At the end of the night, everyone left, happy. I was slightly buzzed, happily full, and deeply amused. I got to see a new side to people I have known for a long time. But I am not really any better educated on wine tasting. I think I may look for a local class, and now I know which friends to invite with me to such a class...