Monday, March 24, 2014

Moms W"h"ine Tasting!

The Headlines:


I love to do parties!

But instead, this time, I did a tasting.

So could you.



I have started this thing, which I have already blogged about, called Mom's W"h"ine Night.  It's a pretty big hit with the gals and clearly it's fun for me!  But this time, I decided to switch it up a bit and add a little wine knowledge to the group.  Most of them love wine but they don't know why!  So we decided to give a little education mixed with a LOT of fun!

First I started with the invites.  I like making invitations, it may be weird, but I find it sets the tone.  When people actually get one they know you mean serious business!  Here's what I did for this…

Inside

Front
If you can't read it, it says:  Put a Cork in it Mom… let's relax and w"h"ine together!  Then it has some wine industry terns like "bottled by" and "appelation"… which is giving the who, what and where's with a little zing!  

When people arrived, we started with bubbles.  Half had a Prosecco and the other half had a Champagne.  After they finished it…we gave them the other and we asked which was which.  Good, fun, gamey start to the night!  

Now, for this wine tasting, we brought in some "experts" and decided to compare/contrast wines from France and wines from California.  Typically, people on the West Coast prefer wines from California because it's what they're used to, due to accessibility.  People from the East Coast usually prefer European wines.  Same reason.  We had girls taste both, somewhat comparable wines, and tell us what they liked better.  Wouldn't you know it… it rang true.  The gals from the "East side" typically liked the French wines.  Which, I like to describe as "thin" or "light"… no less good but California tends to produce more bold and bigger wines.  Take for instance, Chardonnay, they usually are more "oakey" than the wines from France.  We also gave some "nuggets," like if you order a glass of wine from a restaurant and pay $8 for it…that's probably what the cost of the entire bottle (to the restaurant)!  It was interesting and everyone mixed with fun.  

A formal wine tasting can't have too many people.  Unless you have a gigantic dining room table.  



Plus, when people drink wine they tend to get loud!  I think there were 14 moms there.  I had to improvise with the seating a bit.   I also only had 2 glasses for each person, a white and a red.  When you go to Napa, they have like 8 glasses sitting in a line up.  I ain't Napa!  Someone's gotta clean those glasses!

I will say, the gals tasted a lot of wine.


Because of that, we had multiple dump buckets available.  They were plenty used!  Much wine was wasted that night but… a mom has to drive!

One of 4 dump buckets!
Now, as for food... wine tastings are easy to do a menu for because of what typically goes with wine:  cheese, bread, olives, meats, salads, fruit and pizza!  Simple.  


We ate before and after… plus, I put some food on the table.



Whatever you do, just make sure there's plenty of it!  Wine needs food!  

Once the night was over… they got cork key chains we made on the way out the door.  


Those were super easy to make - click HERE to see how we did it.   

As you can see, the night was a blast! 


But here's the best part… you could easily do this too.  Typically, home wine tastings are simply people bringing a bottle of wine and everyone trying it.  I've also heard of hiding the label and seeing what you like best.  There are tons of different tasting variations.  

But I challenge you to go one step further…  find an "expert."  Go to your favorite restaurant and ask the sommelier what he would charge for 1 hour of wine knowledge at your home.  Or what about where you buy your wine?  Perhaps you have a friend in the biz?  Everyone knows someone!  It ups the wine tasting ante and your moms will remember it for a long time!  We all know moms need some serious time to relax, w"h"ine and un-WINE-d!   

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