I’m either getting old* or becoming such a wine hobbyist that my need for knowledge is pushing me to do very new things**.
*Not possible. Twenty-five forever!
**Too often we link our decisions and the ways we are changing to age, but instead, can’t it really be that we have entered a new phase, a new understanding of something which we’d never given the time to explore before?
Whew.
Sorry I got all philosophical on you for a minute there.
Anyway.
Wine.
I’ve noticed French wine just sits differently on the liquor store shelf. And by differently, I mean the label is literally a puzzle of which I think only the French and sommeliers are capable of solving.
This is wine is 100% Chardonnay.
Do YOU see Chardonnay written anywhere on the bottle?*
*I realize it isn’t an all encompassing photo, but I promise, the word isn’t visible on the front of the bottle.
French wine bottle labels are a science of their own, with the region taking precedence over the grape.
I’d reached a point of annoyance over avoiding French wines because I was clueless as to what I was selecting. Thus, French Wine Night came into being*.
*Full disclosure, I first attended a French Wine Dinner at a local French restaurant, which lit the match that set off the flame that caused this grande* explosion of interest.
*So French.
It was an intimate gathering in which my guests supplied the meal* and the wines, the guidance, and charcuterie were my responsibilities.
Thanks to Uncle Gordon for this monstrous charcuterie board, and also, thank you for not buying us the one that was even bigger.
*I wish I’d photographed what we ate, because my friends delivered with a capital D on a combined meal of coq au vin, mushroom risotto, and pastries.
We had five wines, two white, three red, and a bonus of Crémant* with dessert.
*The Total Wine salesman saw me coming and convinced me to buy a bottle of Champagne’s less expensive cousin. Crémant = sparkling wine from France made with the same methods as Champagne, but not in Champagne.
Rather than bore you with the PowerPoint presentation I gave our guests, I’ll say simply this: Mission accomplished. I learned a lot, I tasted a lot—some good, some not so good, and had fun—which is the point, right?
I’m ready to dig in even more and revisit France, but there’s desire among friends to take our tastings to Spain and Italy—so we shall see.
Any wine tasting is a good wine tasting, right?
*Thanks to Amy for the pictures that were way better than the pictures I frantically took that night.
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