Quips & Anecdotes - Wine Tasting Night

When Duc first told me that he had occasional wine tasting nights, I was very excited. Then he finally set a date for one I could attend. Because I love these types of events and miss them oh so dearly, I offered to put together a few appetizers for the evening. I mean, who wants to drink wine on its own? I ecstatically brainstormed on what to make for the night because I knew that I did not have a working oven to use at his place. I also had to consider the cost of ingredients because, as you probably know, I am still unemployed for the time being. What I came up with was quite a delicious spread, if I do say so myself. I enjoy making everything look wonderful and presentable so we had a few plates to set out. We also had a beautiful centerpiece to sport on the table because he gave me flowers when I arrived at the door to get to work!


So I had to consider a few things when I thought of the food to make. It had to hit all the categories of the mouth as mentioned in my previous post on hors d'oeuvres. I had originally planned to match the food with the wines but I was informed that there would be so great a variety of wine types that it didn't matter what I made. So at least I had that freedom in food types! I ended up putting together five different "dishes" on four plates: cucumber bites, Genoa salami wrapped in Muenster cheese with pimento-stuffed olives, marinated mushrooms and artichoke hearts, bruschetta, and cantaloupe and melon slices. Other guests also brought crackers with Brie and fresh apples with a caramel dipping sauce. It was a wonderful night overall.


Apologies for the one fruit picture that is out of style of the others but I took it with my own camera instead of Duc taking it like with all the other pictures. Anyhow, I'm big on presentation because food should be eaten with all of one's senses. I wanted to make sure that the entire spread would look great once people came and taste great as well. Hopefully I managed to make it look wonderful? It pretty much all got eaten up though so that was a good sign!


As for the wines, we tried seven in total. There were three sparkling wines (Crémants), two whites, and two reds. I would go on and on about each but it might become cumbersome. I'd have to say that the crowd pleaser (and my favorite too) was the Jaillance sparkling wine that was a blend of Muscat and Clairette. It was very sweet and pleasant on the tongue. None of the wines tasted that night were utterly hated by anyone, and none of the food was rejected so I'd chalk up the evening as a success! I have always known that I love these types of gatherings but nothing beats going through setting up for one and having a good time with good friends, food, and wine. When I finally get my own place, I will gladly try to host such events of my own as well; subscribers are invited ;).

Credit: Photography by Duc Duong