The Wine Tasting

Just like this guy and this throughly leery dog, I can never take wine tastings seriously -- no matter what the venue. If you're at a store, or even better a vineyard, with all the accoutrements and stylings, you've got to laugh when a guy holds a custom-blown glass by the stem with 2 fingers, swirls the pouring, checks the color, "approaches" the bouquet, and finally sips the teensiest bit of wine into his mouth with a strange gurgling sound before spitting it out. Then, he (or she) starts describing the experience with words that only a bearded Wisconsin U. English Professor or Bard Historian on sabbatical (and acid) in Oxford would ever use. I mean, really, when it comes down to it, there are only two words to describe a wine: "yum" and "sucks." There are further classifications, like "hhm" and "suckier," but overall, it's really about those two.

Now Mike and Jackie do a really good job of getting people together from all different walks of life and making excellent excuses for such. There was the potluck BBQ a few years back, the ski trip to Mammoth (where Jackie threw out my pasta and baked cookies on paper towels (bad idea for you culinarily-challenged)) and Marsha and my engagement party. But the wine fete took the prize. Here's a perfectly non-sensical reason for a bunch of people to get together and drink. Shiraz? Cabernet? Nobody really cared, except for a guy named Gary who would do anything -- and I mean anything -- to win. He did.

More pictures HERE.