Wine Club!

With the start of the new year comes a new beginning - a Wine Club (because I need one more club - ha)!  We kicked off the fun last night at our house.

Nine of the ten couples made it last night, despite the cold weather and the Colts game being on.  Our theme was "Shiraz".  Everyone brought a bottle of their favorite.

We put all the bottles in bags numbered 1-9 and our guests sipped the wines in whatever order throughout the evening.  We had scoring sheets that some took very seriously and others not so much! 

Here are the bottles lined up after the unveiling of the winners.  I was surprised we didn't have duplicates.  It was really fun trying them all!  (See winners below)

We had appetizers to go with all that wine.  I tried out several new recipes - I'll post some of my favorites soon.

As always I neglected to take enough photos and I had some blurriness going on.  Hmmm.  But here are a few of our friends who were with us last night.

Robin and Mary

Lora and Ginger

Barry and Leigh

Eddy and Kim 

And the winners were...

#1 Boomtown 2007

 

Barry and Leigh were the big winners receiving a gift of chocolates specifically for red wines.

#2 Layer Cake 2009

#3 Carnival of Love 2007 (Mollydooker)

I hate that I didn't get a photo of our boys and their friend Trevor who decided not to be outdone by our wine voting - they did their own poll on favorite cheese and dessert served last night. It was really cute.  The Havarti won favorite cheese and the Cake Balls were favorite dessert.

I did a little research on Shiraz (aka Syrah) wines before the party to share with everyone.

Shiraz are dark-skinned grapes grown throughout the world.

They originally come from the Rhone region in Southern France.

It is used as a varietal and is blended (especially in Spain).

Petit Shiraz wines are different than Shiraz.

Petit is also known as Durif and is a cross of Syrah and Peloursin.

Petits are more full-bodied and tannic because smaller, thicker grapes are used.

As mistakenly thought, the name Shiraz does not come from the city in Iran.

Shiraz, Iran is the capital of the Fars Province, established around 2000 B.C.

Ironically, Shiraz is the known as the city of poets, flowers, and wine.

We had a really great time last night and are so excited to be a part of such a great group of friends.

Looking forward to February's club - I hear we're doing Champagnes!