Wine Olympics

July 28th, 2012

One of my girlfriends — that I’ve met thanks to my Downtown Cincinnati Jazzercise classes — is Megan. She works for Macy’s — so cool — and her job involves TONS of traveling around the U.S. and abroad!  Megan, is a vivacious, young, single female who is so creative and brilliant!  She is always coming up with fresh, new ways to have fun…which just about always include wine…Jazzercise, travel, wine – no wonder we became friends, right?!?

Megan’s most recent brilliant idea for a Girls Night Out (GNO) was to host a “Wine Olympics: Opening Ceremony Party” in her Newport, Kentucky condo last night. So here’s what she did…when we girls RSVP’d to attend the event, Megan emailed us a country. We then brought a bottle of wine from that country to the party. Megan wrapped-up each bottle in shiny-gold party bags as we arrived, so no one knew what anyone else brought. I think there were about a dozen of us, so lots of wine from around the world to sample!

I was assigned Germany and thanks to my husband Tim’s oh-so-helpful-and-wonderful website (www.cheapwineratings.com), I very easily located a fantastic Riesling – Clean Slate — and with a quick visit to the Party Source’s online wine inventory, I learned that they had four bottles in stock – and BONUS, they were on sale = $8.99/bottle!!! SCORE!!!  Since the price was right, I bought two and chilled them ahead of time, so they were perfect to start drinking as soon as I arrived at the party. I think a lot of the girls picked up their bottles on the way – just because mine was the only white that was chilled to an “appropriate” drinking temperature. Something to remember when you grab a bottle to bring to your next event – a little planning ahead, goes a long way to being able to fully enjoy any bottle of wine.

I chose a German Riesling to bring to the party because I think when most of us think “German wine” that’s what automatically pops into our heads. Plus, I often hear people say how they “don’t like Riesling wine” because “it’s too sweet!” Well, it doesn’t HAVE to be “too sweet!” It was initially Tim’s www.cheapwineratings.com score of 89 points that drew my attention to Clean Slate. What ultimately sold me was his description of its taste…and I quote, “The palate brings even more excitement with a vibrant tart-yet-slightly-sweet flavor profile. It features tart apple, peach and lime flavors with outstanding acidity. It finishes with a touch of salt, a touch of lime and a touch of peach. This is a solid wine and an exceptional bargain!” Isn’t he poetic?  It sounded like the perfect wine for Megan’s Olympic party!

….Back to last night and the party, Megan equipped us each with pen and paper, so after she had disguised and numbered all the bottles, we all started sampling and attempting to pair the country of origin correctly for each wine. This sparked lots of conversation and like any party, we all wound-up hanging around Megan’s kitchen island drinking our wine and paying VERY little attention to the television and London Olympic Opening Ceremonies. Let’s face it – it was an excuse for a bunch of women to enjoy wine, mix and mingle.

I, thankfully, was 99.9% sure that I could identify my Clean Slate and was greatly entertained by just about everyone at the party saying that they liked my Riesling out of all the bottles – they didn’t know what it was, but liked its crisp, fresh, lightly-fruity flavor.  Thank goodness, I brought two bottles because both were gone by the end of the night.  I think it was the couple of “red wine drinkers” who were the only ones not preferring the Riesling.  Although one self-identified “red wine drinker” commented more than once on how good the Clean Slate was!

To reveal the winners, Megan stripped-off the party wrap from around each bottle one-by-one. In the end, two of the girls tied for first place with six correct countries/wines paired.  I, very respectfully, technically came in third place with five correct answers — thanks in part to knowing my own wine (how embarrassing would that have been?!?) and identifying the undeniable white and red Austrian wine screw top on one of the other bottles. When the girls saw the Clean Slate, I informed them that it was my bottle – many took snapshots of the label to remember the name and asked where I bought it. They were as shocked as me by the price. What a great Friday night and start to the weekend! I had so much fun meeting new people and introducing them to a great Riesling! Thank you, Megan for a lovely, good time!

One Response to “Wine Olympics”

  1. megan says:

    So glad you had fun at my party!!! I am so glad you came with your expertise 😉

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