Wine Tasting

Through a complicated twist of events, I ended up with five bottles of French wine and one Calvados. The origin of which is a long story, even by my standards.... ;-) It's funny how something like a "tasting" can just happen spontaneously -- especially for someone like ME, since I don't really know all that much about wine; really, nothing at all....

Alistair had invited some friends over to talk about bikes. All about cycling....looking at gears, changing tires, bike grease on the hands....with a race playing on TV in the background. The mother in that family is training to do one of the Alp rides this summer, she therefore has instant status with Alistair. :-)

It was a GREAT coincidence for me that her in-laws had just arrived in the country.....for that meant the Cycling Afternoon was now a party.....and gave me the perfect excuse to open up all the bottles and try them side by side. Happily for me, her in-laws really like wine, and more importantly, know about wine. I immediately handed her father-in-law the opener and page of descriptions, and he was a wonderfully gracious leader of our impromptu comparison. This was really nice of him to do, since he had only just met me thirty minutes prior..... he had a grateful audience. :-)

I can't say enough good things about this kind of spontaneous "tasting" - it was fun to compare the sips between ourselves and decide which ones we liked, which ones surprised us or reminded us of other wines; and how the taste changed with blue cheese or camembert or even a cracker. I have to admit, I found the science-y edge to all this very appealing. Even Alistair was game for taking a sip of each one..and he even asked for a re-fill! Usually, he's not so excited about wine. Maybe it just tastes better in a group. :-)

Looking for "legs" .... I'm still not entirely sure what that is. Wait! I know - I can just have another tasting!!!! :-)