A Wine Tasting Party?

We have a group of friends, (8 couples in total), with whom we’ve been sharing a monthly wine tasting social event… While the group was never very formal, at first there was at least an attempt to semi-formally talk about, taste and evaluate the various wines.

 

Then the event began evolving.  We graduated from a selection of appetizers and snacks with wine, followed by the wine tasting…to a selection of appetizers, then dinner, then the semi-formal wine tasting followed by dessert.

Here Joel and Charlie are comparing notes about their upcoming cruise with their spouses… 

 

Then the wine tastings became even less formal… Still with a theme involved, such as South American, Australian or California wines…but with the spiel about the wines truncated or eliminated.  Just pour the wine will ya!

This is Larry, Dick and Fred...Dick being one-half of the couple hosting the group this evening. 

 

The party has now evolved into a buffet style sit-down dinner with wine or other libations prior to, during and after the meal.  In this case, we just drank all of the California wine (and others too) that everyone contributed…there was no conversation about the wines other than something like…”That sure is a nice wine!”

The ladies above are Jenny (Fred), Holly (Joel), Karen (Charlie) and Bev (Larry).  While the guys would like to think that they come first, now that we’ve all retired, we have learned the true pecking order around the house.

 

The food at these gatherings has been just terrific.  We usually have 3 or 4 appetizers along with a couple of snack items…a nice salad, sometimes a vegetable, potatoes or rice dish and an entrée… In this instance, our hostess Susan, (above with her husband, Dick), furnished a delicious chicken with wine sauce entrée and…because I love a good yeast roll…I must give credit to Bev for her fabulous yeast rolls & bread.  She put them in the oven there at the party & the wonderful aroma of fresh baked bread, told us dinner was about to be served!

You may have noticed that there are no photos of any of the food… It just slipped our minds as Laurie and I were having such a good time.  By the time we remembered that we’d meant to take photos for my blog…the food was all gone and the party was almost over!  We'll try to do better at the next wine tasting party.

 

This is Steve… He attended by himself as his better half, Joyce, was a bit under the weather.  Irv and his wife Martha also missed this event…having a previous and far more important commitment operating the concession/snack stand for their daughter’s school for Friday night football. (East Tennessee is all about high school Friday night football!)

If you enjoy a drink from time to time, you might have noticed that no one is drinking from a wine glass.  That’s because we celebrated two special events right at the close of the evening…so champagne was the drink of choice at that moment. 

Susan & Dick ordered this very thoughtful giant frosted cookie so we could celebrate both Joel and Holly and Karen and Charlie’s wedding anniversaries.  It was a ‘sweet way’ to end the evening…

We’re sorry that we forgot to take photos of the food…it was all top notch!  Many thanks to Susan and Dick for hosting this great party!

Just click on any photo to enlarge it…

Thanks for stopping by and meeting some of our friends!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave