Suggestions, please

[karelou74]

I started a wine club in July - we meet once a month and each meeting has a theme. So far, we've done rose, pinot grigio, pinot noir, and the other two times the themes didn't work out for one reason or another. I'm looking for some fun and interesting new themes. Regional suggestions? Unusual (but not too hard to find) varietals? We tend to hover in the $8 to $20 range. I should note that I started this club even though I knew next to nothing about wine. I work for a small fashion/beauty/lifestyle magazine and have *somehow* become wine writer in residence [I know only a little more about writing than I do about wine...]. It hasn't become too demanding yet, but I'd like to get out of the shallow end and swim with the adults sooner rather than later - without breaking my bank! My first article comes out in a few months and talks about learning about wine, my wine club, and how easy it is to start one. I'm still looking for some 'never fail' food and wine pairings to inlcude as a sidebar.
Any suggestions would be great! By the way, I live in Los Angeles.

[Innkeeper]

Hi Karelou, and welcome to the Wine Board. Please pick up the wonderful book "Great Wine Made Simple" by Andrea Immer. She teaches through tastings. Lots of great ideas and tastings throughout the book.

[karelou74]

Thank you [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/smile.gif[/img]
I will definitely pick that book up!

[White Wine Lover]

How about country as a theme? That's how they are arranged in my local store.

[wineguruchgo]

Well, what country does the book take place? That might be interesting.

My sister has a Mother-Daughter bookclub and was just featured in the New York Times last Sunday. They match snacks/food for their meetings with what country the book takes place.

I'm thinking that I read that 48 of 50 states produces wine in this country if you want to narrow the scope down. If the country in the book is Japan, try Sake. I think you get my drift.

Just a thought.

[Kcwhippet]

Actually, guru, now all 50 states have working wineries. DC is the only place without one, but it's not a state.

[wondersofwine]

You can come up with all kinds of themes for tastings. One might be wines from 2001 vintage (good year in Germany, California, etc.) or 1999 if you can still find them locally. Another might be wines from wineries starting with the letter S (Sterling, Simi, Silverado, Sebastiani, St. Supery, Schloss Schonborn, St. Michelle, etc.
However, if most of the members are relatively new to wines, they probably will learn more from sticking to a varietal or to a region or country (Spanish wines, Portuguese wines, Loire wines, Rhone wines, Piedmontese (Italy) wines, Alsacian (Alsace, France) wines, etc. You also might do Oregon wines and try to include Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc.

[Auburnwine]

We have a very satisfactory technique among the four couples with whom we taste every two months.

We have two different thematic flights of four wines. They are brown-bagged and then numbered for blind tasting.

We have done varietals (Cabs, Shiraz/Syrah, Zin, etc.) and we have done reds by region (Spain, Washington State, etc.) and "blends."

Our best tastings have been "Rated 90 and Above" (by WS, WA, WE, etc.), "Wine that Some Knowledgeable Person Has Recommended," and "Personal Favorites."

Sometimes we start with a white flight, but more often we drink all reds -- because of the nature of what our group enjoys. We have developed a good evaluation sheet and always keep a list of aromatic references close by.

And, of course, it's great fun to practice matching food with wine. We have finger foods (bread and fruit) during the flights and take an eating break between flights. We generally cap off the evening with dessert and a sticky wine.

We take our notes, rate the wines, and then discuss each wine in turn. It's especially fun when a $10 wine stands up well beside $30 wine.

Once we all went to the beach for a long weekend and did two flights of upper-end (for us) wines. THAT was a learning experience.

[This message has been edited by Auburnwine (edited 11-12-2003).]

[wondersofwine]

Sounds like a lot of fun!

[Auburnwine]

Oh, and we follow all that with a flight of Bayer Blanc and copious quantities of eau.

The same group has been doing this for three years, and it's interesting how we each score the wines within a point or two of one another -- a kind of collective consciousness.

[karelou74]

Thanks for the great suggestions. I'll be using them [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/smile.gif[/img]