Our wine tasting was SO FUN, and it seemed like our guests really enjoyed themselves! (At least, I know I did! 😀 ) We tasted 5 delicious wines, learned new things, ate yummy food, and ended the night with a dance party! I’d say it was a success! 
Our wine tasting was run by a wine consultant from the Traveling Vineyards, a company that brings wine tastings into your home, complete with five full bottles, to enjoy with your guests for free! Of course, the consultants want to sell you wine, but you are not obligated to buy anything at all.
The food spread for the wine tasting was unbelievable! Mal and I prepared all sorts of dishes and our friends brought even more delicious goodies. (I wasn’t able to take photos of everything because I was busy chatting away!) We ended up having a little bit of everything, but by the end of the night, it was all gone!
Mal and I made a low-cal artichoke dip (created by Bethenny Frankel) that had a ton of flavor and didn’t taste “healthy” at all. We also made homemade pita chips in our toaster oven to scoop up the dip, which was gobbled up by our guests in a matter of minutes! Our friends loved it!
My sister made Burger bites…
… as well as the most delicious Cornflake Cookies. The Cornflake Cookies sort of tasted like Rice Crispy Treats, but softer and more moist. I ate at least 3 last night! 😳
The spread…
Time to eat!
My plate (+ many, many cookies)…
After digging into the food, we learned about wine. Our consultant was very knowledgeable, but not pretentious in they way she presented the wines to us. She made the wine tasting fun by adding little tidbits of information about each of the bottles, but let us discuss the wines and share our opinions in a casual way. Basically, we laughed a lot and enjoyed tasting new wines!
Mal took his wine tasting seriously. (He loves to learn.) Here he is examining the color of his white wine before tasting it.
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At the tasting, we tried 2 white and 3 red wines. I took a few notes on each (in italics):
- 2007 Cielo, Famatina Valley Torrontes, Argentina
Citrusy, zingy, citrus flavors, a tad peachy, smooth, not oak-y, loved this one! - 2006 Pierre-Luc Bouchaud, Muscadet Sevre et Maine Sur Lie, France
Medium bodied, clean, crisp, dry - 2006 Catania, Ribera del Duero, Spain
Medium bodied, flavors of ripe berries, a tad spicy, dry and sweet, delicious - 2006 Paseo Reserve, Cabernet Sauvignon, unfiltered, Maule Valley, Chile
Brick red color, medium to full bodied, earthy, flavors of cherry, blackberry, and chocolate - 2005 Blair Family Estate, “Reserve” Zinfandel, California
Flavors of raspberry, black berry, raisin-y, really nice wine
Both Mal and I especially enjoyed the Cielo, so we ended up purchasing two bottles. We probably would have ordered a couple of the reds too, but we are gearing up for summer, and to me summer means cool, crisp white wine!
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I enjoyed tasting all of the wines last night, but apparently there was one I didn’t like too much. Mal caught my “opinion” of it at just the right time! I guess I wasn’t a fan!
More tastes…
Diligent note-taking…
I drank another glass of wine after the tasting, but our friends (and my husband) decided to have some beers. The evening ended with an intense dance party in our apartment. As you can see, Mal made use of his “props.”
I’m pretty sure Journey was playing when I snapped this photo!
All in all, it was a wonderful evening! I highly recommend Traveling Vineyards if you’re interested in doing a free wine tasting. It was a blast!
