Entertain: Ladies Wine Exchange

#22) Entertain!

Saturday’s “Ladies Wine Exchange” was at my house, but I have to give credit to Maggie for the idea, which is brilliant plan for a structured gathering.  Here’s how it works.  Each person brings two bottles of the same wine.  At the beginning of the party, you line up one set of the wines in order—whites first and then reds in order of progressive “strength.”  Or something.  Acidity?  Tannin?  Legs?  Honestly, I don’t know.  Olivia took on the task of lining up the wines and did a great job.   Just have someone who knows something about wine set the order. 

Next, the person who brought the first wine reads the description on the label and tells how they selected it.  The wine is passed around and each person pours themselves a little (or a big) taste.  Do this for each of the wines while eating so many hors d’oeurves you are left with no choice but to unbutton your pants.  We had cheese, grapes, apples, nuts, crudités, guacamole, hummus, mini toasts with brie and jam, Indian-spiced paneer cheese balls, chips, olives, bread sticks, toffee, 5-bean salad.  So. Much. Food. 

Once all of the wines have been tasted, each person draws a number.  Then, you basically follow the rules of a white elephant gift exchange to divvy out the unopened bottles.  The person with the lowest number selects their favorite, but the next person can “steal” from them or choose from the stash.  Repeat until everyone has had their turn and has a bottle to take home. 

It was fun to learn about people’s preferences for wine.  I also paid more attention to the differences between the wines than I have in any other wine tasting I have been to since I knew I would need to be sharp when it came time to choose my favorite to keep.  I ended up with a wine called Tarima Monastrell , which is bottled in Mariemont, Ohio.   It’s something I would not have thought to choose at the store, but I really love it!

I also ended up with seven half-empty bottles of wine that we didn’t finish.  Except that in my mind, they are seven half-full bottles that I will enjoy for many evenings to come:

The wine exchange was the day before Maggie’s 31^st birthday, so I made some wheat berry brownies, which have more antioxidants than pomegranates!   At least that’s what the lady who was promoting the box of mix at Rempke told me.   So it may or may not be true. 

If it’s not true, I may not be able to justify what I had for breakfast this morning:

(Not pictured:  three additional brownies)

Anyway, I had so much fun at the Ladies Wine Exchange.  It included all of my favorite things--a little game, structure, wine, education, food, rules, and some of my favorite people.  In fact, it made me want to entertain every weekend.   Zola and Emer agree.  Look at how they were eagerly awaiting our guests when I told them who was on the way: 

 

My goal is to get to the place where I entertain so often I don't feel like I have to spend two hours cleaning before people arrive. 

Scratch that.  "Not cleaning" is probably not an acceptable goal.  This is not the year. 


-K.