Ok... Buck's County is technically 40 minutes outside of my own personal yard space, but it is certainly close enough to home.
I spent this 40 degree day sipping wine at my new favorite place, Crossing Vineyards and Winery. Crossing vineyards is a beautiful, quaint winery located just off of 95 in Washington Crossing, PA.
My visit today was two-fold. #1- I was able to meet up with some old Coordinator friends (and a few new ones) and #2-I was able to increase my knowledge of wine. In this industry you quickly learn one thing, there is ALWAYS more to learn! So today, I took a refressher course, not so appropriately titled, "Wine Tasting for Dummies" (smile).
Now I've taken my fair share of wine courses and today's was by far my favorite. The tasting was led by Tom Carroll, Sr, who is downright hysterical! His humor and laid back personality definitely eased the air of the "snob" feeling often associated with wine and allowed the group to relax and learn he process involved in the appreciation of wine.
Here are a few interesting things I wanted to share for all of the newbies considering learning about wine:
1. You always want to smell your wine (keeping your head straight,tilt the glass and put your nose into the glass, so that the wine runs just below the tip of your nose) Swirl the wine (air oxidizes/ages the wine)and smell again-the intensity of the smell will increase.
2. When you sip wine, to highten your sense of smell, close your eyes (Go figure!)
3. The correct way to swirl if you are right handed i n counter clockwise, lefties you are to go the other way.
4. Three types of wine- Bone dry, Off dry (less than 3% sugar) and sweet
5. Reisling wine is perfect to pair with Thai, Indian, Mexican or any other spicy food-brings out the flavors of the dish
6. The date on the wine bottle is the year the grapes were GROWN.
7. White wine should be consumed 3-5 years from the date on the bottle, red is 5-8 (generally speaking)
8. The term "young" refers to newly bottled wine. The wine needs more bottle time, approximately 6 years.
9. Lastly, it is CRUCIAL to slurp taste your wine to get the true taste on your palette.
Now, being the charm school graduate I am, I found #9 to be the most challenging thing to do initially. Basically tilting my head forward and "gurgling" and then slurping and swallowing the wine, totally disturbed me! The purpose however, is to take in air as you sip and it really does work to change the taste in your mouth...and Tom Sr is right, in will not drip out of your mouth
If you're ever in the area, make sure to stop by Crossing Vineyards-it was truly an amazing experience. Even better-the Winery is able to host private events and accomodate up to 300 people!
So, to answer my own question...what better way is there to spend a Sunday afternoon then wine tasting and a beautiful vineyard right in your own backyard???? Doing so and calling it WORK!
Below is a picture from today with some of my Colleagues- from left to right Myself, Tanti Lina of Papertini, Deidre Grey of Always a Positive Image and Randi Martin of Always Fabulous Events
PS. When you visit, be sure to try the Wild Bery Original Series, Blush, Apple and the Reisling!
3 comments:
I'm glad you enjoyed our outing and go so much out of it. It was so nice to meet you in person. And don't we look adorable in this picture? LOL
See you soon
Randi
Also some say to hold the wine glass by so warm the wine with your body heat, this can help to release aromas. Other people suggest to hold the glass by the base, so NOT to warm the wine and change the characteristics. - Go figure!
Eric,
That was another topic of discussion. We learned that you should always hold the glass by the stem and that White wine should not be put on ice before consumption but taken out and left at room temperature about 20 min. prior to expected use. Red wine is just the opposite and should be chilled before use.
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