In Vino Veritas

Oh, Pliny the Elder, how right you were.  Last night I went to a wine tasting held by the HD Community Spouses Club Wine Club (which I may be head of next year-the wine club, not the Spouses Club because that is waaaay too much work and responsibility). One of the perks of being the Wine Club chair is...um...wine and wine swag from the vendors.

So, I went with The Contessa, T.O.M. and Chiquitita.  There were about 17 of us in all (much fewer than last month, but it is Spring Break and everyone seems to be jetting off or getting ready to jet off to some place exotic-except me).  The wines last night were Italian.  I'm still working on enjoying Italian because many of them are too strong for me, but there are a few I like and, let's be honest, I'm always up to try something new.

Me, The Contessa and Chiquitita at the beginning of the evening.

The first wine we tried was Villa Castalda Prosecco.  For those not familiar with prosecco, it's a white bubbly wine.  I hesitate to call it a "sparkling wine: because the bubbles are much finer than those found in normal sparkling wine.  It was a bit dry, though it tasted lovely.  Crisp, and fruity and would be delicious in a mimosa or with a splash of pomegranate juice and pomegranate seeds floating in it.  Yum.

The second wine was Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio, which is apparently the number 1 selling Pinot Grigio world wide.   It smelled of golden apples, pears and walnut and had a crisp taste with a hint of spice on the end.  It was a nice wine that would be delicious on a warm summer evening.

Next up was Di Mojo Norante Sangiovese.  This was a red wine that I did not like.  It was too dry and smelled and tasted strongly of tobacco.  I'm not a fan of wines with tobacco as a smell or a flavor and this one was overpowering to me.  Maybe if it had been aged longer, it would have mellowed, but it was not for me.

 The Contessa, T.O.M. and The Flea Market Queen

After that we had Tommasi Crearo, which was HEAVY.  It's a "Super Venetian" which apparently means it's a blend of a few different grapes.  It was so heavy, you could only put a little in your mouth at a time.  It smelled strongly of currants, black cherry and dark chocolate.  It had a very strong dark chocolate finish, which was nice, but again, it was so heavy, I couldn't drink much of it.

Finally, we had Gigi Rosso Dolcino, which was my hands down favorite.  OMG!  So good.  It was a medium red that was soft, smooth and sweet, and tasted of deep red fruits.  Oh, my was this good!  The lady running the wine tasting suggested trying it with chocolate and she was soooooo right. It was amazing with dark chocolate. 

 This is us towards the end of the evening.   Look how we all look a little glassy eyed.  Good times, people, good times.

I drank about 4 glasses of the Dolcino.  It was that good.  Unfortunately it was also sneaky.  Sneaky in that it was like "Oh, hey MIHH!  How are you?  Want to be friends?  Yes, you do.  Drink me.  I'm delicious.  Oh, don't worry about the alcohol, you had bread and cheese.  You'll be fine." and then 30 minutes later BAM!  The alcohol kicks in and you can barely tell which way is up, especially since you had 4 wines before it.  Fortunately we lived within walking distance of the wine tasting, so it wasn't bad getting home.  Once I did though, I went to bed straight away and slept like a very happy baby.