E.V.E. here, a.k.a. the Enlightened Vino Enthusiast. I am about to partake in Pine Ridge Napa Cabernet 2008- one of only three wines we chose out of eighty possiblilities at the Glazer Distributing wine tasting. This Pine Ridge is a “treat” bottle because of the price point and would complement any special occassion. Or you could buy the Pine Ridge and create a special occassion because you bought a great bottle of wine.
Okay, enough about the wine and on to the learning portion of the show…
Have you ever been to a wine tasting? I mean a wine tasting where you are expected to buy at least some of what you taste, not the kind at your neighbor’s house? We got a chance to do that. What we learned is DO NOT attend a wine tasting unless you know what you are doing. And don’t get there late.
We got there late. We didn’t leave the store ’til late and had to drive all the way to Little Rock. By the time we got there we had missed dinner. Not a good idea since we really hadn’t eaten and it looked like we had eighty or so wines to sample. Well, we did manage to grab some hors d’ovres before diving into the wine…
So we ate some and then walked into the tasting room. This is a room of tables set up like a craft fair with the goods laid out, in this case wine, with labels and tasting notes next to each. And standing behind each is a salesperson touting their wares. I have to say, some of them were quite persistent…but it’s not like we didn’t want to taste the wine. We did. As much as we could in the barely 30 minutes we had left. We tasted and we spit. Then we tasted and swallowed and then we tasted and spit again. The “dump bucket” was a little gross. And we still haven’t figured out what these people are doing to the wine they’ve got in their mouths to make it come out all frothy. That dump bucket is something you’ll have to get used to if you plan on attending wine tastings.
Anyway, we made it through the first room and had tried some really nice wines and champagnes. We also tried some not so nice ones, too. We didn’t buy those, though.
The second room was the auction room. Each wine had a form for you to write your name or number and the amount per bottle that you were willing to spend. It was a good thing we are an outgoing sort because after speaking with a few patrons we removed our name from the one and only form it was written on. Apparently when you won that auction you were winning and promising to purchase every single bottle of that wine that they had in the warehouse…like 80 cases worth. That is not something we wanted to commit to so soon after opening Judicious Spirits.
The trip was fun. The experience was one we’ll talk about for quite awhile. I like to think we have learned alot since then. Hopefully, you now have learned a little, too.
